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HOUSE NO. 4. 



REPORT 

OF THE 

SELECT COMMITTEE 

OP THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

ON SO MUCH OF THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH, AT THE 

JUNE SESSION, 1830, AS RELATES TO 

LEGALIZING THE STUDY OF ANATOMY 

EEPORTED BY A SELECT COMMITTEE CONSISTING OF 

Messrs. J. B. DAVIS of Boston 

G. WILLARD of Uxbridge 
A. HUTCHINSON of Pepperell 
L. W. HUMPHREYS of Southwick 
J. B. FLINT of Boston. 



DUTTON AND WENTWORTH, PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 

Nob. 1 and 4, Exchange Street 



1831. 



©ommontoeattf) of MuumtyuwUn. 



In House of Representatives, Jan. 6, 1831. 

The select Committee of this House, to whom was re- 
ferred so much of his Excellency, the Governor's 
Speech at the June session, 1830, as relates to the 
Study of Anatomy in this Commonwealth, have at- 
tended to that duty, and now submit the following 

REPORT. 

The subject committed to them, though it yield in 
importance to few that come within the scope of Legis- 
lative action, is beset with difficulties even in approxi- 
mating a satisfactory, practical result. On the one side 
are the health, the safety of the limbs and lives of a 
whole community; on the other are encountered those 
strong prejudices, powerful associations, and earliest 
impressions of awe and reverence, for the repose of the 
dead, which are too strong to be conquered, too delight- 
ful to be despised, and too solemn and hallowed to be 
effaced. 

Deeply impressed with these considerations, your 
committee have thought proper at this time to go 
into a full examination of the subject committed to 
them, — to look at it in all its aspects, and to present, not 



only the results, but the details of their researches and 
reasonings on it, with a hope of putting the Legislature 
in full possession not only of the views, which your com- 
mittee entertain, but also of the routes by which they 
have proceeded, — the important considerations which 
are suggested, and the difficulties which are to be en- 
countered. 

Your Committee claim no other merit than that of a 
faithful compilation of the facts and reasonings of dis- 
tinguished men, who have devoted their attention to this 
subject, and your Committee's object has been to ar- 
range and to condense, what appears to them to have a 
proper bearing on the subject, so as to put it into the 
possession of all the members of the Legislature, or at 
least make it easily accessible to them. 

Your Committee propose to consider : 
I. The Rise and Progress of Anatomical Science : 

II. Its indispensable importance to both great branch- 
es of the Healing Art ; — the practice of Medicine and 
Surgery : 

III. The interest which Society at large, especially, 
and the Medical Profession incidentally, have in the 
modification of the laws of this Commonwealth, so as to 
afford a reasonable facility for the pursuit of Anatomical 
Science : 

IV. The Provisions, and the Character and Effect, of 
our present laws, regulating the practice of Physic and 
for the Protection of the Sepulchres of the Dead : 

V. The Provisions that have been made in France 
and other enlightened countries, for the promotion of 
Anatomical Science ; and 

VI. Present those conclusions, which the Committee 



recommend for Legislative sanction by legal enactments* 
with a view to like results in our enlightened Common- 
wealth. 

I. The Science of Anatomy, like Astronomy, Botany, 
Chemistry, and other mixed Sciences, requiring the 
union of intellectual vigor and power with nicety of oc- 
ular observation and manual skill, has grown through a 
lapse of successive ages, from small beginnings to its 
present improved condition : But, although great pro- 
gress and improvements have been achieved, much yet 
remains to be done. Though Newton, Linnaeus, La- 
voisier and Harvey have in their respective pursuits 
achieved lasting fame for themselves, and conferred the 
greatest benefits on the human race, still since their glo- 
rious careers have ended, much more has been added 
to the conquests of Science, and if proper encourage- 
ment be not withheld, we may expect in each branch 
that new discoveries will yet be made, extending the 
limits of the human intellect, and giving us new cause 
to admire, reverence and adore that Eternal and Infinite 
Wisdom, by which, both Man, the inferior animals, and 
inanimate Nature have been so wonderfully adapted to 
the purposes of their creation. 

The early accounts of Anatomy are so mixed up with 
fable, that little or no reliance can be placed upon them. 
It no doubt existed in an incipient state among the 
Egyptians. 

In fact from the earliest ages, as disease, infirmity and 
exposure to labor and suffering were the common lot of 
man ; — Medicine and its most important auxiliary, Anat- 
omy, — but in a rude, degraded, and uninviting condition, 
must have existed as the necessary incident of this con- 



dition of our race. When the savage chief Omai was 
in Dr. Hunter's Museum, although he had not the power 
of explaining himself, it was apparent, that he knew the 
principal parts of the human body and something like- 
wise of their uses, and manifested a great desire of 
having the functions of the internal parts of the body 
explained to him. The poems of Homer show that 
some anatomical facts were known as early as his era. 

The patriarch Joseph, we read, was embalmed and 
buried in Egypt. In the Old Testament there are other 
faint traces of resort to Anatomy either for the relief of 
the suffering living, or for the purpose of resisting the 
common and inevitable decay of that mortal frame, 
around which the associations of the survivors were 
wont to cluster. But both by the Egyptians and Jews, 
and also by the Arabians, the persons, employed in 
opening dead bodies, were considered polluted, and it is 
recorded of the Egyptians that they even stoned them, 
when they appeared in the public streets. 

Their religious rites as well as most of their princi- 
ples of morals and government were received by the 
Greeks from the Egyptians, Thracians, and other na- 
tions of the East, which were in a high state of civiliza- 
tion and improvement when Greece was yet immersed 
in barbarism and ignorance. Colonies from these na- 
tions landed in Greece and taught its native people the 
rudiments of the Arts, ceremonies of religion, habits of 
civilized life, and by degrees brought them to submit 
to a regular form of Government. 

In the earliest period of the history of Greece the 
character of physician was often superadded to that of 
priest, and hence arose an idea very prevalent in all 



ages, and perhaps in all nations, however savage, of a 
sanctity appertaining to the practitioner of the Healing 
Art. This idea is known to be prevalent among most 
of the Aborigines of America, and also among other sav- 
age tribes in Africa and Asia. The pestilence, that was 
destroying the Grecian Army on the plains of Troy, 
could not be stayed till they had carried a sacred heca- 
tomb to Chryses, the priest of Apollo. In the religious 
system of the Greeks in addition to their numerous ora- 
cles, they had an extensive system of Theomancy, con- 
sisting of divinations by dreams, sacrifices, birds, lots, 
and ominous words and things, and of magic and incan- 
tations. The study of divination by sacrifices necessa- 
rily led to the study of anatomy of Animals, for it con- 
sisted in making observations while killing and cutting 
up the victim. These observations were not confined 
to external appearances, but were extended to the en- 
trails and internal organization, and as these were found 
healthy or diseased, whole or defective, so was an infer- 
ence drawn and the prediction ventured, for good or ill. 
The death of Alexander the Great, was predicted by 
the soothsayer Pythagoras, because the victim's liver 
had no lobos, — and his favorite Hephaestion's death was 
forewarned by the same omen. 

Caesar's victory over Pompey was foretold, because 

" Of the liver's heads one overgrown, 

" And as 't were squeez'd, was by the other down." 

And Caracalla was warned to take care of himself, u be- 
cause the gates of the liver were closed." 

In all divinations by sacrifices, the liver was the first 
object, from an idea, if it were defective, the blood and 



whole system partook of its deficiency. But in addition 
to divination from the bodies of Animals, the Greeks 
practised a system of divination with the bodies of de- 
ceased persons, called Neckromancy, which must have 
led to the study of the human Anatomy. It was some- 
time performed by the use of a bone or vein of a dead 
body, or by pouring warm blood into an entire dead 
body, as it were to renew life in it. 

Dum vocem defuncto in corpore quaerit, 

Protinus adstrictus caluit cruor, atraque fovit vulnera. 

" While he seeks answers from the lifeless load, 

" The congealed gore grows warm with reeking blood, 

" And cheers each ghastly wound." 

Hence the fables of Orpheus raising Eurydice from 
the shades, of Ulysses and of Eneas at lake Avernus in 
Campania, &c. &c. What a tribute to the value of An- 
atomical Science, that an early tradition of its use by a 
distinguished poet and philosopher, though lost in fable, 
should be, that he had successfully charmed back from 
the shades below the wife of his love ? 

It may be here remarked that another species of the 
early Grecian Divination was called Pharmacy, which 
consisted in the use of certain medicated compositions 
of minerals, herbs, &c. Democritus and Pythagoras, 
both in fact eminent in their day as physicians, were 
skilled in this art. Suidas reports that the curing of 
distempers by sacrifices and the use of certain invoca- 
tions, had been practised ever since the time of Minos, 
King of Crete ; and Homer relates how Autolycus' sons 
stopped Ulysses wounds from bleeding by a charm : 



9 

With nicest care the skilful artist bound 

The brave Divine Ulysses' ghastly wound, 

And the incantations staunched the gushing blood. 

The same is observed by Pliny, who says, it was re- 
ported by Theophrastus that the Hip-Gout was cured in 
the same way: by Cato that a charm would relieve any 
limb out of joint, and by Marcus Varro, that it would 
cure the gout in the feet. The famous leech, Chiron, is 
said to have used this remedy in some diseases but not 
in all ; for he was in advance of his age. 

It is undoubtedly true that the same mixture of gross 
superstition with the earlier beginnings of medical skill 
and the rudest attempts at its practice, have been wit- 
nessed in all ages and in the early history of almost all 
nations. 

The importance of the Healing Art may be readily 
inferred from the fact that in all ages and in the darkest 
shades of ignorance, man has ever practically recogni- 
sed the Doctrine ; " from the most High cometh heal- 
ing," and to " God our Lord belong the issues from 
death." 

Thucydides relates that at the breaking out of the 
plague of Athens, the soldiers, finding their accustom- 
ed aid from the physicians failed, resorted for relief to 
the Soothsayers and Divines, and like principles of hu- 
man action led to the deifying of Esculapius and to 
many other fables with which the Grecian Theogony 
abounds. 

To Pythagoras, one of the most eminent men that 
any age of the world has produced, belongs the honor 
of first cultivating the anatomy of animals. He taught 
2 



10 

that the blood nourished the body, that the arteries and 
veins were the vehicles of life, and laid the foundation, 
on which his pupils in after years were enabled to build. 

Among these, were Alcmaeon, Anaxagoras and Em- 
pedocles. Democritus of Abdera possessed an inde- 
pendent character and an inquisitive mind. He was 
also in advance of the age in which he lived. He ridi- 
culed unceasingly the follies of his fellow men, and this 
turn of disposition, aided by his love of dissection, gave 
him among his cotemporaries the reputation of being 
mad. 

Hippocrates is a name so intimately associated with 
the early history of the healing art, as to have acquired 
the honorable adjunct of the " Father of Physic." 

His theories however are extravagant, wanting the 
only safe foundation for theory on any subject ; a close 
observation of nature, and a rigid abstinence from ima- 
gination and fancy. He taught that there was one gen- 
eral principle called nature, possessed of intelligence and 
having virtues and powers, the servants of this principle, 
by which it performs all operations in the bodies of ani- 
mals, distributes the blood, spirits and warmth to all 
parts of the animal frame, and gives them life and sen- 
sation. This principle attracts what is good or agreea- 
ble to each species, and rejects whatever is hurtful or 
useless, and he thus obtained the foundation of his the- 
ory of depuration, concoction, and crisis in fevers. 
When he explains what he means by nature, he resolves 
it into heat, which he says appears to have something 
immortal in it. Thus it would seem that our modern 
Steam and Lobelia Doctors have no claim to originali- 
ty in their theory, for it is at least as old as the age of 
Hippocrates. 



11 

He was impressed with the importance and ne- 
cessity of Anatomical Knowledge, and sought it, 
where the prejudices and ignorance of his age alone 
permitted him to seek it, among the decaying relics of 
mortality in the grave yard. Though his theories 
were imaginary, he was a great observer of facts : and 
the eminent French physicians of the present day re- 
cur to Hippocrates as the greatest and best of the author- 
ities of antiquity. 

Asclepiades was the opponent of Hippocrates. He 
taught that matter is unchangeable, that all bodies are 
composed of a number of small ones, called corpuscles, 
having between themselves a space called pores or in- 
terstices, devoid of matter — that the soul is composed 
of those corpuscles : that nature is nothing more than 
matter and motion : that Hippocrates knew not what 
he said when he spoke of nature as an intelligent being : 
that these corpuscles have different figures and are dif- 
ferently arranged ; that the pores or interstices are of 
different sizes ; that the human body has pores peculiar 
to itself: that they are of different sizes according to 
the magnitude of the corpuscles that pass through them, 
and that the body consists of the largest and the spirits 
and animal heat of the smallest. He maintained that so 
long as the corpuscles are freely received by the pores, 
the body remains in its natural state. On the contrary, 
that so soon as any obstacle obstructs their passage, it 
begins to recede from that state ; therefore, that health 
depends on the just proportion between these pores and 
corpuscles : that disease proceeds from a disproportion 
between them : that the most usual obstacle arises from 
a retention of some of the corpuscles in their ordinary 



12 

passages, where they arrive in too large a number or are 
of irregular figures, or move too fast or too slow ; that 
phrenzies or burning fevers are produced by the corpus- 
cles stopping of their own accord ; that delirium, lean- 
ness and dropsy derive their origin from the bad state 
of the pores; that hunger arises from the opening of 
large pores of the stomach, thirst from the opening of 
the small pores, &c. &c. 

Soon after the era of these rival physicians, schools 
were established at Athens, in which anatomy of animals 
was made a part of the studies. The anatomical de- 
scriptions of Plato and Xenophon, the favorite disciples 
of Socrates, are often mentioned as specimens of fine 
writing. A passage is referred to in the writings of 
Plato, from which it is inferred that he must have had 
some imperfect conception of the greatest of all medi- 
cal discoveries, the circulation of the blood. 

Aristotle, the philosopher of Stagira, whose fortune it 
was to establish a dominion over the human mind, far 
more extensive and lasting than his pupil Alexander, or 
the most ambitious conqueror of former or later periods, 
in the plenitude of his power, ever possessed over the 
external condition of man, is said first to have attend- 
ed to the anatomy of the human frame ; but some deny 
him this high praise, allowing him only the merit of im- 
mense labor for the science of comparative anatomy, 
and giving to his successors, Herophilus and Erisistratus, 
the honor of having first dissected the human body. In 
his scientific labors, he was countenanced and assisted 
by his pupil Alexander the Great, whose mind to his 
great honor, it may be recorded, conquered and threw 
off the trammels of the prejudices of that period. The 
amount of patronage bestowed by Alexander on Aris- 



13 

totle, to enable him to prosecute his studies, was im- 
mense. It is stated by several historians as high as be- 
tween 100,000/. and 200,000/. sterling. Aristotle when 
dying, is said to have uttered the following aspiration. 
It breathes the spirit of true piety and humility. It is, 
too, illustrative of this eminent philosopher's character : 

" Faede hunc mundum intravi — anxius vixi — perturbatus egredior — 
causa causarum miserere mei." 

" I entered this world in the humblest condition — I 
have lived a life of anxiety — I am now going out of the 
world in pain — Great First Cause of all things have 
mercy upon me !" 

Forty years after Alexander's death, Herophilus ap- 
peared in Syria, where he was protected in the study of 
Anatomy by Dissection, by Seleucus. Erisistratus also 
appeared in Egypt, where he was protected and encour- 
aged in the same pursuit by Ptolemy Philadelphus. — 
Popular prejudices however were strong against such 
pursuits. 

The great mass of mankind were then debasingly ig- 
norant ; very few rose above the level, at which from 
the development of man's physical appetites, to the ut- 
ter neglect of his high moral and intellectual attributes, 
he becomes merely the chief of the animal creation, in- 
stead of fulfilling his higher destiny of living not only for 
himself, but for the benefit of his posterity ; and by 
daily improvement- — of approximating nearer and near- 
er to the illustration on earth of the sublime truth, that 
God created man in his own image and made him but 
" little lower than the angels." 

They therefore then felt extremely jealous of these 



14 

novel inquiries, prosecuted with zeal, under royal pa- 
tronage and favor. 

The idea was prevalent that their kings were search- 
ing for the principle of life, which found, they could se- 
cure to themselves exemption from the common lot of 
man, and flourish in continued youth, whether they lived 
for the good or ill of their subjects. 

A school for medicine and anatomy was, however, es- 
tablished at Alexandria in Egypt, and notwithstanding 
these prejudices, flourished with varied success. It was 
the only source of medical and anatomical knowledge 
till the decline of the Roman empire. 

But little progress was made in anatomical science 
by the Romans. It is worthy of remark that civilization 
owes but little to these boasted conquerors, for any ad- 
ditions made by them to the dominion of either Art or 
Science. 

In fact, so far from improving upon the Greeks, they 
were hardly able to learn and retain the excellence al- 
ready achieved by them. 

In Architecture, all their efforts served only to debase 
and degrade the simple and beautiful models, which the 
pure style of the Greeks afforded. 

Galen is the only Anatomist of any eminence, of whom 
we have an account as having flourished in Rome, or 
of whose labors in the "Eternal City" of Western Eu- 
rope, we have any memorials ; and he was a Greek and 
learned his profession at the Medical School of Alexan- 
dria ; — itself founded and maintained by Greeks. 

Superstition had even more sway with the Romans 
than with the Greeks, and they trusted far more to the 
incantations, mysteries and foolish rites than they did to 
the surgical skill of those, who combining the characters 



15 

of augur and surgeon, at once undertook to cure both 
the bodily and moral ills of their followers and believers. 

Tn the earliest ages of Greece, burying the dead was 
practised rather than burning, and although the latter 
mode was in practice as early as the siege of Troy and 
soon became general, interring continued to be practis- 
ed in many cases. 

The philosophers were divided, and although the ma- 
jority were in favor of burning, there were at a late pe- 
riod those who looked on the custom of burning as bar- 
barous and inhuman. 

With the Romans, however the practice of burning 
was more general, and it universally prevailed from the 
days of the Dictator Sylla, who is supposed to have or- 
dered his body to be burned lest his enemies might have 
disinterred it, and treated it with like indignity as was by 
him shown to the remains of Marius. 

Under the Emperors the custom of burning became 
universal, but was gradually dropped on the introduc- 
tion of Christianity, so that it had fallen into disuse 
about the 4th century. 

This custom no doubt tended to discourage and ren- 
der difficult anatomical dissections among the Romans. 
Galen, upon coming to Rome from Alexandria was made 
physician to the good, and therefore great, Marcus Au- 
relius. He compiled from the Greeks and also prepar- 
ed a compend of his own, that was the most complete 
then extant. 

No other anatomist is known to have flourished and 
no other improvement in the science was made, till after 
the downfall of the Roman empire and the revival of 
letters in Europe. About the year 1530, there appear- 



16 

ed the prince of quackery, Philippus Aureohis Theo- 
phrastus Paracelsus Bombast Von Hokenheim. He was 
born at Zurich and lectured at Basle. His theory was, 
that salt, sulphur and quicksilver were the constituents 
of all organized bodies, and were combined by chemical 
operations. Their relations were governed by Archeus, 
a demon, who was governor of the stomach ; that this 
demon, this spiritus vitce, was the immediate agent both 
in producing and in curing disease. Diseases were pro- 
duced by influences, called by him ens estrale, ens ve~ 
neni, ens naturale, ens spirituale and ens deale ; that 
when the demon was sick, putrescence or mortification 
took place and that either localiter or emunctorialiter, &c. 
Such theories, though once soberly taught and serious- 
ly believed, seem now as ridiculous and amusing, as 
Pope's account of the researches of Martinus Scriblerus 
for the seat of the soul. That profound philosopher, ac- 
cording to his biographer, concluded that the soul re- 
sides in different parts according to different inclina- 
tions, sexes, ages, and professions. Thus in epicures, 
he seated it in the mouth of the stomach ; in philoso- 
phers, in the brain ; in soldiers, in the heart ; in women, 
in their tongues ; in fiddlers, in their fingers : and in 
rope-dancers, in their toes ; at last however he grew 
fond of the Glandula Pinealis as being the favored resi- 
dence, and he was confirmed in this theory by observing, 
that calves and philosophers, tigers and statesmen, foxes 
and sharpers, peacocks and fops, monkeys and players, 
courtiers and spaniels, moles and miners, exactly resem- 
ble one another in the conformation of the pineal gland. 
The period, which followed the decline and fall of the 
Roman empire, is known as the dark ages, and the sci- 



17 

ence of medicine was lost to all useful purposes and 
checked as to any improvement, for about 1,000 years, 
when a Paduan physician ventured to give demonstra- 
tions in anatomy. The emperor, Frederic II. issued a 
decree prohibiting all persons from operating on the 
living, who had not learned dissection on the dead. 

But on this science as well as on all others, priest- 
craft and superstition exercised a baleful influence. 

The students of anatomy were destined to experience 
a portion of that illiberal spirit, which punished Galileo 
for teaching the true system of nature. Pope Boniface 
VIII. prohibited dissections under the penalty of ex- 
communication. But a prince, not more eminent in 
arms than for his love of the Arts, and his superior sa- 
gacity and strength of intellect, Charles V. of Spain and 
Germany, having obtained a preponderating influence 
in the affairs of Europe, he demanded of the Doctors of 
Salamanca, whether it were lawful for good Catholics 
to open dead bodies. Their reply was shaped in con- 
formity with what was believed to be that eminent mon- 
arch's own wishes ; that it was a useful and therefore a 
lawful practice. He forthwith extended his patronage 
to anatomists and a great impulse was given to the sci- 
ence of anatomy in the Low Countries, in Germany and 
in Spain, and in Italy. 

Vesalius of Brussels, a most eminent name in the his- 
tory of anatomy, was made a Professor at many institu- 
tions and was honored with the appointment of physi- 
cian to Charles V. and Philip II. To Vesalius belongs 
the far greater honor of having by his knife detected 
and exposed the rash conclusions and fallacies of Galen, 
excited a spirit of inquiry and given a new impulse to 
the Science of Anatomy. And under what embarrass- 
3 



18 

raents and difficulties, he was enabled to do this may be 
inferred from the fact, that he was actually sentenced 
by a Canonical Court to make a pilgrimage to the Holy 
Land, to expiate the sin of having opened the dead body 
of a Spanish nobleman, who had suddenly died! 

For many years after the time of Vesalius, anatomy 
remained in a state of comparative rudeness and bar- 
barism, presenting occasional gleams of light, which 
were soon lost in the surrounding darkness. He was 
succeeded by Columbus, a name distinguished in the 
discoveries of anatomy as well as by the discovery of a 
new world. Fallopius also flourished at this period 
and is remembered as the discoverer of the Fallopian 
tubes. Eustachius, Servetus, Fabricius and others suc- 
ceeded ; Servetus claims the honor of tracing the cir- 
culation of the blood through the lungs, but a prior 
right to this honor is claimed for Columbus. Servetus 
died at the stake, a martyr to his religious opinions. 

Fabricius first observed the valves to the veins. He 
had a distinguished school at Padua, to which those 
emulous of medical excellence and science very gen- 
erally resorted. 

At this school the true mode of study was adopted; 
the study of facts instead of theories ; and the conse- 
quence was that the rapidity of improvement almost 
exceeded hope, and the veil interposed by prejudice 
and scholastic dogmatism was forever withdrawn. 

Successive demonstrations and observations had pre- 
pared the way for a discovery, compared with which all 
former anatomical discoveries sunk into insignificance, 
and which was destined to change the entire system of 
anatomical science, placing it at once on a new but per- 



19 

manent and safe basis. William Harvey, an English- 
man, was a student at the Paduan school. 

The former discoveries of the valves in the veins led 
his attention to this part of the animal economy, and 
he was enabled soon to discover and to demonstrate the 
true system of the circulation of the blood from the 
heart, the grand centre of life through the arteries to 
the surface, thence back through the veins again to the 
heart. 

This discovery fairly overshadowed all that preceded 
it. Its great importance will give interest to the fol- 
lowing extract from a life of Dr. Harvey, contained in 
one of those popular and excellent works of recent in- 
troduction, " The Family Library." 

" The same service which Newton afterwards render- 
ed to optics and astronomy by his theories of light and 
gravitation, Harvey conferred upon anatomy and medicine 
by his true doctrine of the circulation of the blood. He 
was descended from a respectable family in the county 
of Kent, and was born at Folkstone on the 1st of April 
1573. The date of the first promulgation of the doc- 
trine of the circulation is not exactly ascertained : it is 
commonly asserted he first disclosed his opinion on the 
subject in 1619 after he had been lecturing four years. 5 ' 

ic The index, however of his MSS. in the British Muse- 
um, which contains the propositions on which the doctrine 
is founded, refers them to April 1616. Yet with a pa- 
tience and caution peculiarly characteristic of the sound 
philosopher, he withheld his opinions from the world, 
until reiterated experiment had amply confirmed his 
system and had enabled him to demonstrate it in detail, 
and to advance every proof of the truth, of which the 
subject is capable." 



20 

" The reputation of Harvey had recommended him 
to the notice of the court, and he had been appointed 
Physician Extraordinary to King James I. In 1632 he 
was made physician to his successor Charles I. By 
his unfortunate royal master he was always treated with 
regard and favour ; and the attachment to arts and sci- 
ences, which formed a conspicuous part of the king's 
character, contributed not a little to promote and en- 
courage the pursuits of our philosopher. It is not with- 
out a degree of pardonable vanity that Harvey describes 
his Majesty, with some of the noblest persons about the 
court, as deigning to be the spectator and witnesser of 
his experiments." 

" The interest king Charles took in the success of his 
anatomical researches was of singular service to him, 
and in particular his majesty's favourite diversion of 
stag-hunting furnished him with the opportunity of dis- 
secting a vast number of animals of that species in a 
pregnant state." 

" When Charles visited his northern dominions in 1633, 
for the purpose of holding a parliament, and going 
again through the ceremony of a coronation, Harvey 
accompanied him, during which time he made an ex- 
cursion to the Bass Rock, in the Frith of JForth, of 
which he has left an elegant and picturesque descrip- 
tion." 

" Soon after his return the anatomical skill of Har- 
vey was employed by the king's command in the dis- 
section of that extraordinary instance of longevity, Tho- 
mas Parr, who died November 14th, 1635 at the age of 
153 years. He was a poor countryman, who had been 
brought up from his native country, Shropshire, by 
Thomas, Earl of Arundel, and shown as a great curiosi- 



21 

ty at court. At the age of 88 he had married- his first 
wife : at 102 he had done penance in church for a 
breach of the laws provided against incontinency. 
When he was 120 he married again, taking to wife a 
widow, with whom he is represented to have lived upon 
the most affectionate terms. At 130 he had threshed 
corn, and done other agricultural work, by which he 
gained his livelihood. His usual habits of life had been 
most sparing ; his diet consisting of coarse brown bread, 
made of bran ; of rancid cheese, and sour whey : but 
when, on his arrival in London, he became domesticat- 
ed in the family of the Earl of Arundel, his mode of 
living was changed, he fed high, drank wine and soon 
died." 

" The original MSS. of Harvey's lectures are preserv- 
ed, it is said in the British Museum, and some very cu- 
rious preparations, (rude enough as compared with the 
present ingenious methods of preserving parts of the 
human body) which he himself made at Padua, or 
procured from that celebrated school of medicine, and 
which most probably he exhibited to his class during his 
course of lectures on the circulation, are now in the 
College of Physicians; they consist of six tables or 
boards upon which are spread the different nerves and 
blood-vessels, carefully dissected out of the body ; in 
one of them the semilunar valves of the aorta are dis- 
tinctly to be seen." 

" Now these valves,placed at the origin of the arteries, 
must, together with the valves of the veins, have fur- 
nished Harvey with the most striking and conclusive ar- 
guments in support of his novel doctrines." 

'* The interesting relics just mentioned had been care- 
fully kept at Burleigh-on-the-Hill, and were presented 



22 

to the college by the Earl of Winchelsea, the direct 
descendant of the Lord Chancellor Nottingham, who 
married the niece of the illustrious discoverer of the 
circulation of the blood." 

" Harvey was a great martyr to the gout, and his me- 
thod of treating himself was singular. He would sit 
with his legs bare even if it were frosty weather, on the 
leads of Cockaine House, where he lived for some time 
with his brother Eliab, or put them into a pail of water, 
till he was almost dead with cold, and then he would 
betake himself to the stove, and so it was done. He was 
troubled with insomnolency, and would then get up and 
walk about his chambers in his shirt till he was pretty 
cool, or even till he began to shiver, when he would re- 
turn to bed and fall into a sleep." 

So great was the admiration of Harvey's" discoveries 
that his statue was erected in his honor during his life- 
time by the London College of Physicians. 

But the magnificent discovery of Harvey served only 
to stimulate other examiners of nature's noblest work, 
to renewed efforts to overtake and embrace the beauti- 
ful, but light-footed, timid and retiring Goddess, Truth. 
The dazzling light, which Harvey had cast, as with the 
flash of a thunderbolt, on the path of true discovery, 
did not blind those who followed him, but like the star in 
the north served to guide them in safety and certainty 
to new and grand results. 

Asellius discovered the Lacteal ducts, Pecquotus, the 
Thoracic duct. 

Two Anatomists of the last century, Hunter and Hew- 
son, discovered the Lymphatics and that they serve the 
admirable purpose of taking away the useless and su- 
perfluous parts of the human frame. Thus it would seem 



23 

that the triumph of anatomical science had been fully 
assured. The stomach and its auxiliary organs had 
been found to be the grand laboratory, in which the 
nourishment, supplied by the appetites, was converted 
into blood, or into blood in its incipient condition ; — this 
has been followed in its progress, till it arrived in the 
condition of arterial blood at the lobes of the heart, the 
grand centre of life ; — thence it had been followed, pour- 
ing forth through the arteries its crimson current, rich 
with nourishment, health and strength to the remotest 
and smallest members, and thence its return through 
the veins has been traced back to the heart, again to re- 
commence its course of health, vigor and strength to the 
whole and perfect man. 

But there was another part of the human frame, which 
had as yet been imperfectly examined or understood. 
The brain had elicited many theories, but its organiza- 
tion, as well as its connection with, or uses in, the intel- 
lectual operations of man, were but imperfectly if at all 
understood. The true history of the organization of 
this organ was first developed in the present century, by 
a German Anatomist, Dr. Gall, who has become known 
and distinguished as the founder of the system of Phren- 
ology or Craniology. 

Pythagoras, Plato, Galen, Haller and other Physiolo- 
gists placed the sentient soul or intellectual faculties in 
the brain. Aristotle placed it in the heart; Van Hel- 
mont in the stomach ; Des Cartes and his followers in 
the pineal gland ; and Drelincourt and others in the 
cerebellum. A succession of observations not only of 
the external appearances but also of the anatomical for- 
mation of the brain, in a variety of subjects, led Dr. Gall 
to the belief, that the structure of the brain was different 



24 

from what it was generally conceived to be, and has 
enabled him to give a correct idea of the structure of 
this important organ. 

He demonstrated that it consisted of two hemispheres, 
and that these were composed of fibres regularly ar- 
ranged. 

Till anatomical research had placed every branch of 
Medical Science on a sure basis, the practice of physi- 
cians was directed by theories, as absurd as, though per- 
haps more plausible than, those of Paracelsus. There 
were mechanical physicians and chemical physicians ; — 
one physician tried to cure one fever by inducing anoth- 
er ; — another physician opposed phlebotomy in all cases ; 
— another prescribed alcohol for the cure of the gout ; — 
another, tea as a sovereign remedy in all cases — forty 
or fifty cups for a fever, to wash off the slime of the pan- 
creas — and another traced all diseases to an excess or 
want of fire or water in the system — one cured fever by 
starving — another by stimulating ; — so that it has been 
truly remarked, that the ravages of the yellow fever, 
or of the battle of Waterloo, are trifling compared with 
the piles of victims, that have been sacrificed to false 
and unphilosophical medical theories. 

Having thus rapidly sketched the Rise and Progress 
of Anatomical Science, from the extravagant and crude 
theories of those, who are now only remembered as the 
earliest of the practitioners of the Healing Art, and as 
the first explorers of this, then Terra Incognita of the 
Dominions of Science, down to the present period of its 
advancement and improvement by the aid of observa- 
tion, dissection and a close adherence to facts, and their 
invariable preference to theory, however flattering, spe- 
cious or enticing ; 



25 

II. We next propose to show, that the study and 
knowledge of Anatomy are essential to the safe and suc- 
cessful practice of Medicine. 

In teaching the most ordinary mechanical opera- 
tions, the process is to begin with the parts and proceed 
thence to a knowledge of the whole. The smith teaches 
his apprentice, first to form a nail or to go through some 
simple operation, and starting thence by gradual progress, 
he acquires the master-workman's skill, and becomes 
competent to operate upon and to form for useful pur- 
poses large masses, or to adjust the springs and balance 
wheels of some nice machinery. The ship-carpenter 
first teaches the young beginner at this trade to prepare 
the plank, or to hew the timber according to a plan pre- 
pared for him, and it is by slow and gradual progress 
that he is fitted to occupy the place in the course of 
events to be vacated by his master, and to perform well 
and with certainty every process, necessary to convert 
the oak of your forests into those floating bulwarks, at 
once the pride and protection of your country. So with 
the house-carpenter, the watch-maker and the ma- 
chinist. 

Each and all branches of the Mechanic Arts are first 
learned by acquiring a knowledge of the separate parts ; 
then looking at and becoming familiar with their mutual 
relations and joint effects, appearances and operations, 
we become familiar with the whole. We learn particu- 
lars first, then we have the materials, from which to gen- 
eralize. Such is the early operation of the human mind ; 
such its first efforts. The infant calls every one it sees, 
when first able to articulate, by the endearing name of 
parent, or by some other term, dear and familiar to it ; 
because it has to learn by a process of reasoning to which 
4 



26 

it is not yet competent, that there are other and numer- 
ous persons in being, besides those with which it daily 
exchanges the fondest endearments and receives the 
kindest attentions. Let us apply these principles to the 
study of the human frame. 

Man is truly wonderfully and fearfully made. 

He is truly the last and greatest mortal work of the 
Almighty Creator and Benefactor. 

He is a living, animated, nice, well-adapted, but com- 
plicated machine. 

How is the machine to be studied and elucidated ? 
How is the physician, whose business it is to keep the 
machine in repair, to learn his art ? By taking it part 
from part, by tracing up effect to cause, by beginning 
with that which is apparent and following it up to that 
which is more recondite, by making himself familiar 
with every organ, power, effect ; by learning the differ- 
ence between the proper and healthy, and the irregular 
and diseased action of every part, and of all the parts ; 
in a word, by Dissection. 

He must learn his art by that simple process which 
nature herself indicates. By beginning with particular 
facts and thence proceeding to general results. 

But the knowledge which is required of the most 
skilful mechanic for the successful prosecution of his 
business, affords but a faint idea of the extent of know- 
ledge, and accuracy of practice, that should be demand- 
ed of the thorough-bred physician, who at times takes 
the lives of his fellow men into his own hands, to be sav- 
ed or lost as he may prove skilful, or the reverse. 

Would any one trust a valuable watch — an heir-loom 
— that in addition to its intrinsic value had a sort of 
moral and peculiar worth, from its having been the fa- 



27 

vorite timepiece of a beloved parent, of a departed sage 
or patriot — would such a valuable relic be trusted even 
to Roskell himself, had he no other knowledge than was 
to be learned from finely written descriptions, nicely ex- 
ecuted and colored drawings, or even the best and most 
accurate models ; to which however the principle of 
motion had never been imparted ? Would a wise man 
employ to build the house, in which he meant to say, 
soul take thy rest, and enjoy the many good things that 
Providence has allotted thee, a house-builder whose 
knowledge of his trade had been learned from the works 
of Palladio or Stuart, rather than one, who, with culti- 
vated mind, had learned the necessary details of his 
trade over the bench and in his workshop ? 

And shall we absurdly trust to operate on the human 
frame, made in God's own likeness, filled with that nice 
machinery, to which even to approximate would bid de- 
fiance to human ingenuity and industry, those individ- 
uals who are prepared by the study of only wax models 
and paper drawings ? If we do, accident and good luck 
may sometimes lead the surgeon to happy results. But 
he has no certainty in his operation and feels no confi- 
dence in himself. He gropes in the dark. He may do 
this successfully so far as to pass through the great 
avenues without losing himself. 

But how can we expect him with accuracy and celeri- 
ty to pick up a cambric needle or to remove a grain of 
sand, not merely from the surface, but from the remotest 
and obscurest corner of that surface ? 

It would be far safer and wiser for a ship's crew to 
trust themselves and their vessel to a blind pilot ; for if 
they took a true departure and knew the course and dis- 
tance to the place at which they meant to arrive, their 
chance for a fortunate issue would be far greater. 



28 

Not only is this knowledge of anatomy necessary to 
the surgeon, but it is of so fleeting a nature as to re- 
quire constant practice to keep it fresh and bright. The 
oldest, most practised and adroitest surgeon will never 
essay an ordinary operation on a living subject, before 
he first has traced out his track, with the certainty, and 
all the solemn sanction of life or death, on the dead 
subject. It is dissection, repeated and reiterated dissec- 
tion alone, that can teach him, where he may cut the 
living body with freedom and despatch ; where he may 
venture, only with great circumspection and delicacy ; 
and where he must not on any consideration attempt, 
what man's organization w r ould render fatal. This fre- 
quent dissection informs the head, gives dexterity and 
power to the hand, and familiarizes the heart, to a sort 
of necessary inhumanity, the use of cutting instruments 
upon fellow-creatures. A proper knowledge of the or- 
ganization of the human frame and of the mode and ef- 
fect of surgical operations can then only be acquired by 
the dissection of dead bodies, and this knowledge can 
only be retained by frequent and continued dissections. 

In addition to these considerations, it follows as a 
corollary from the propositions already proved, that im- 
provements in the mode of performing known and com- 
mon operations can only be expected from frequent dis- 
sections by the surgeon ; — and that such improvements 
will be made, may be fairly inferred from the fact, that 
in many cases they have already been made. 

Amputation of a limb has now lost many of its hor- 
rors, and the difference is immense, between the des- 
perate resort of the Greeks and Romans, who knew of 
no other way to stop the hemorrhage, than to plunge 
the mutilated stump into boiling pitch, thus superadding 



29 

agony to suffering ; and the present speedy, simple pro- 
cess of tying up the veins and arteries, and thus placing 
the unfortunate sufferer at once at comparative ease. 
The progress of anatomical skill has already saved to 
afflicted humanity a vast amount of suffering, as well as 
preserved many valuable lives, and we believe that its 
resources for relieving man from many of the ills " that 
flesh is heir to," are neither all developed, nor, we trust, 
exhausted. 

The extent of the triumphs already achieved by sur- 
gical skill may be adequately conceived, from the fol- 
lowing case, which we find mentioned in a recent num- 
ber of the London Medical Gazette. 

" Case in which the cheek and mouth were restored by 
operation. 

"In such cases as this (the forlorn hopes of surgery) 
English surgeons must certainly yield the first rank to 
their brethren in France, whom no difficulty seems to 
daunt, and whose patients seem inspired with a perse- 
verance that sets pain and failure at defiance. At the 
sitting of the Academy of Sciences on the 12th of July 
M. Dupuytren showed a patient from ten to twelve 
years old, in which he had succeeded in restoring the 
lips and a great part of the right cheek, thus filling up 
the void left by the loss of the lower jaw of that side. 
These different parts had been destroyed by a gangren- 
ous inflammation, and the result of this great loss of 
substance was a hideous deformity, continual flow of 
saliva, prolapsus of the tongue on the neck, and impos- 
sibility of articulating. 

M. Dupuytren formed the design of repairing these dis- 
orders by borrowing a portion of the integuments which 



30 

covered the anterior part of the neck. After having 
once failed, he succeeded in uniting a portion of the 
integuments with the edges of the cheek." 

" All trace of this operation is now reduced to linear 
cicatrices, not very disagreeable to the eye ; the tongue 
and saliva remain in the mouth ; speech though weak 
and embarrassed is yet intelligible ; but the dimensions 
of the mouth are so extremely small, that a tea spoon, 
even, cannot be introduced, so that mastication cannot 
take place, and he is obliged to live upon liquid ali- 
ments. Notwithstanding this singular appearance, the 
boy has nothing revolting in his aspect, and his life is 
no longer an insupportable burden as it was before the 
operation." 

The superiority, conceded as above quoted, to French 
surgeons by a British periodical, is wholly attributable 
to the greater facilities afforded for dissections in France 
by the French Laws. 

But surgical operations are few compared with the 
more common maladies which require the aid of the 
practitioner of medicine. 

Is a knowledge of Anatomy necessary to him ? Does 
it better enable him to invoke the aid of Botany, Chem- 
istry, Dietetics, Gymnastics, &c. &c. to restore vigour 
and health to the diseased frame ? Is it in fact essen- 
tial to his success in these efforts? Or is Pathology a 
science independent of Anatomy ? 

These are inquiries deeply interesting to every mem- 
ber of the community ; for, though we all hope to es- 
cape those accidents or maladies which demand the 
surgeon's knife, few, if any, are exempt from the pain- 
ful duty of seeking more than once in their lives, that 
grateful relief which the skilful physician knows how to 



31 

administer to the sinking, diseased and suffering man, 
A distinguished physician and most eloquent writer has 
said: — " If we consider every branch of medical sci- 
ence, education and practice in detail, we shall discover 
that each has a more or less immediate reliance on Ana- 
tomy and Physiology, and that all the best established 
principles of Medicine are founded upon the knowledge 
of structure and function. Anatomy is the only depart- 
ment, which may be strictly declared to have an inde- 
pendent existence, inasmuch as Physiology, Pathology, 
Therapeutics and Surgery exist only in immediate re- 
ference to it ; and the sciences of Materia Medica and 
Chemistry pertain to Medicine, only so long as they re- 
fer to the other branches, which presuppose an acquaint- 
ance with Anatomy." 

" Without Anatomy, Physiology cannot exist, Patho- 
logy cannot be studied, practice would be reduced to 
random experiment and Surgery degraded from the high 
rank it now holds." 

"Without the torch of Anatomy to direct his move- 
ments, the efforts of the accoucheur would be in vain, 
on those occasions, where his judicious interference is 
attended with life and safety to the mother and her ten- 
der offspring. Without a knowledge of Anatomy and 
Physiology, in vain might the Chemist follow nature 
through her mysterious combinations, to discover agents 
of greater potency and usefulness than those already 
employed ; in vain might the student of Materia Medica 
cull the drugs of distant climes, or explore the boundless 
regions of our own land for medical substances." 

u Such then being the importance of anatomy and its 
absolute necessity to the formation of a good physician, 
it may excite surprise that any votary of medicine should 



52 

neglect opportunities of procuring that knowledge, 
which is the grand axis his profession revolves upon, 
and to which continual reference must be made in the 
performance of the most ordinary professional duties." 

" The importance of anatomy is often assented to 
with readiness, but is too frequently not properly felt, 
until the individual is placed in situations where all his 
deficiencies stare him in the face, and his mind is agon- 
ized by recollections of valuable opportunities, irretriev- 
ably lost." 

" A greater misfortune can scarcely be imagined than 
to witness operations performed by those, who have no 
better knowledge of anatomy than is supplied by their 
indistinct recollections of demonstrations imperfectly at- 
tended to, or the Anatomical details given in descrip- 
tions of surgical operations." 

Reasoning from analogy, the inference is irresistible 
that the basis of all medical skill is a knowledge of ana- 
tomy. 

How would the mariner successfully navigate the 
ocean with his frail bark, were he ignorant of its con- 
struction, unskilled to trim its sails, and to shape its 
course, so as best to encounter the opposing as w r ell as 
favoring swell of the deep. Could the watch-maker or 
the machinist nicely adjust the various wheels, springs, 
checks, and regulators which unite to make the com- 
plete machine, were he ignorant both of its parts and of 
the principles and means of their mutual and combined 
action ? 

If not, how can the physician safely proceed with the 
human machine, in navigating through the difficulties 
and trials which it is called to encounter, how can he 
hope well to repair what is disordered, or to replace 



33 

what has been displaced, if he' be ignorant of its con- 
struction, Has never analyzed and properly studied the 
principles and means of its nice, peculiar and most won- 
derful operation ? Assuredly he cannot. Anatomy then 
is the basis of safe medical practice. Not a step can 
the medical practitioner proceed without its light to 
guide and cheer him. 

The human machinery is most complicate and recon- 
dite. We see the results, but we do not understand the 
causes and means by which they are achieved. We 
walk, we sit, we lift our hand, we sleep, we eat, and the 
body is nourished ; these are daily circumstances, com- 
mon place, nay, almost hourly events in every man's 
history ; but how few are there ; not, who understand the 
machinery by which these results are achieved, but who 
can fully and seriously appreciate that these and every 
other operation of the human frame, show that man tru- 
ly is fearfully and wonderfully made. The organs, on 
which most of the important functions of the human 
body depend, are concealed from view. Their mutual 
effects and sympathies can only be understood by the 
knowledge of their secret, most recondite operations. 

The grand mysteries of nature have only been devel- 
oped by a close observation of nature, as she is. Theo- 
ry will not do. Had Newton been a theorist, instead 
of a patient observer of nature, the system of gravitation 
would not have been discovered. Had Franklin been a 
day-dreamer, the nature of lightning and its identity 
with electricity might have been yet involved in mystery. 
It was Galileo's love of nature and his close observation, 
that taught him the true system of atnv spheric pressure. 
Had Harvey been a theorist, his theories might have 
been remembered as well as those of Hippocrates, As- 
5 



S4 

clepicades, Galen and Paracelsus ; " To point a moral 
or to adorn a tale ;" but they would have been as use- 
less and as unenduring. He was an observer of nature, 
he loved dissection, and his close observation of the hu- 
man economy enabled him to make the brilliant discov- 
ery of the circulation of the blood. Systems of vessels 
of essential importance ; for instance the absorbents 
that take up the food after it is digested and convey it 
into the blood, are under ordinary circumstances invisi- 
ble to the naked eye. How could these absorbents been 
known to exist, except by careful and thorough dissec- 
tion. Many diseases of the highest importance have 
their seat in the organs of the body : an accurate ac* 
quaintance with their locality is essential in order to 
judge of the locality of the disease. 

In some portions of the body organs of different struc- 
ture and performing different functions are very contigu- 
ous : we name the stomach, the liver, the gall, the blad- 
der and portions both of the small and of the large in- 
testines. The seat of pain is often at a great distance 
from the afflicted organ. 

In the disease of the liver, pain is generally felt at the 
top of the right shoulder. The right phrenic nerve 
sends a branch to the liver. The third cervical nerve, 
from which the phrenic arises, sends numerous branches 
to the neigborhood of the shoulder : thus is established 
a nervous communication between the shoulder and 
the liver. This is a fact, which nothing but anatomy 
could teach, and affords the explanation of a symptom, 
which nothing but anatomy could give. The knowledge 
of it would infallibly correct a mistake, into which a 
person, who is ignorant of it, would be sure to fall: in 



35 

fact persons ignorant of it do constantly commit the 
error. 

Disease of the liver has been known to be erroneous- 
ly treated as rheumatism in the shoulder, and this error 
may have been fatal to the patient, by giving to a fatal 
and insidious disease an opportunity of taking root in 
the system. Disease of the liver is not unfrequently 
taken for disease of the lungs. So too, persons treated 
for disease of the liver have been found to have had no 
disease of the liver, but a disease of the brain. 

Persons are often attacked with convulsions, especial- 
ly children : — convulsions are spasms ; — spasms of course 
are to be treated by anti-spasmodics. But these 
spasms are only symptoms, denoting an important disease 
of the brain, where only the remedy is to be applied ; and 
the ignorant practitioner who prescribes and administers 
anti-spasmodics, not only loses the time in which the 
remedies to save life can be successfully employed, but 
actually exacerbates the disease and accelerates its fa- 
tal termination. In the hip complaint, so terrible and 
painful a disease, the first pain is felt in the knee, not 
in the hip. Of the numerous painful affections of the 
abdominal region, the lungs, the heart, the head and 
the extremities, some are traceable to a nervous origin and 
are known as Neuralgic Diseases. Dissection has en- 
abled the anatomist to follow the nerves from tnese 
portions of the human frame into and through the spi- 
nal marrow, and other large but remote masses of ner- 
vous matter : — and this has suggested to the physician 
the truly philosophical remedy for the painful affections 
of these regions, produced by disordered nerves ; viz. 
to apply remedies to the back, — the less obvious but 
true seat of the disease, — instead of to the immediate lo- 



33 

cality of the pain. Remedies thus applied have had the 
happiest effects, and afford new and striking illustrations 
of the necessity of anatomy to the successful practice of 
medicine. 

Error in all these cases is inevitable without a know- 
ledge of anatomy ; and experience so far from leading 
to its detection, would rather serve to confirm it. Ig- 
norance of the mode of properly applying his experi- 
ence deprives the unskilled in anatomy of the anility of 
profiting by it. 

How long was it before the true solar system was dis- 
covered and demonstrated, and how useless all the ex- 
perience and observation of the grand results, produced 
by that magnificent system of nature, from the time 
that the shepherds watched the stars on the plains of 
Chaldea; — till beginning at first principles, by a rigid 
induction those results were elucidated by Copernicus, 
wlrch afford a sure explanation of phenomena, before 
enveloped in darkness and mystery. 

So with the human system : till an actual examina- 
tion of its parts and consequent familiarity with their re- 
lations and operations has prepared the medical prac- 
titioner, when he has observed the effect, at once and 
with certainty, to follow it back to the cause, whether 
remote or near, direct or indirect, his observation and 
experience can only serve to confirm him in error. He 
may make theories, but they will not be based on philo- 
sophical principles ; they may by accident and luck be 
right, but they are far more likely to be erroneous, and, 
like the thousand and one that have preceded them, 
will go down the stream of time into " the receptacle 
of things lost upon earth." In medicine as in the com- 



37 

mon concerns of life, it is the wise only who grow wiser 
by experience. 

To the physician, anatomy is thus important. But 
to the surgeon, it has been emphatically remarked ; that 
it is eminently what Bacon has so beautifully said know- 
ledge in general is, "it is power;" — "power to lessen 
pain, to save life, and to eradicate diseases," which 
without its aid would be incurable and fatal. 

It is recorded of Napoleon, that he once said that 
Larrey was the greatest man in his empire ; generals fit, 
not only to command in the tented field and to set hun- 
dreds of thousands in battle array, but also to wield the 
destinies of empires and to wear the crown of royalty, 
he had in crowds, — but there was but one Larrey. 

If we look at the present condition of surgical skill, 
in immediate comparison with the degree of skill at- 
tained by the Greeks at their highest advancement, we 
may appreciate the extent of the progress that has been 
made, and the obligation which the world owes to those 
great men, who have devoted their lives to this neces- 
sary, but unjustly odious business of anatomical study. 
The Greeks and Romans very rarely attempted ampu- 
tati n and more rarely with success. They knew of 
no better mode of stopping hemorrhage than to plunge 
the mutilated limb into boiling pitch, searing it with a 
hot iron or some other process, equally barbarous and 
inefficient. To tie an artery was far beyond their sci- 
ence. 

The Reman emperor who grieved that ho could not 
add a new word to the perfect Latin of the Augustan 
age, would have considered the achievement of this, 
now simple and common operation, far more useful, de- 
sirable and honorable. Aneurism is not an uncommon 



38 

complaint, and it now yields in a majority of cases to 
proper surgical treatment. Galen is the first writer who 
notices it, and, if the number now annually cured by sur- 
gical skill of aneurism be assumed as the number, who 
annually perished for the want of this aid, for one thou- 
sand years prior to Galen's era, some adequate idea may 
be obtained of the importance of anatomical skill to the 
safety of human life. 

The operation for aneurism, or preternatural dilata- 
tion of the coats of an artery, now in practice, was intro- 
duced by Mr. John Hunter, the founder of the Hunte- 
rian museum, since his death purchased by the British 
government for 15000/. and given to the London College 
of Surgeons. He boldly determined to operate upon 
the healthy part of the artery, stopping the circulation 
there, and by the healthy condition of that part of the 
artery, assured the completeness of the adhesion of the 
sides of the vessel, and the consequent obliteration of 
the artery where diseased. 

It was a bold experiment. For aneurism in the ham 
of the leg, he boldly cut down upon the main trunk of 
the artery, where it supplies the lower extremity ; but 
bold as the experiment was, it was justified by his 
accurate knowledge of the whole human economy, and 
his success has earned him a just rank among the bene- 
factors of our race. Abernethy followed his master in 
bold operations — he tied the external iliac artery for the 
cure of aneurism of the femoral, and lately, the internal 
iliac itself has been taken up ; and surgeons have tied 
arteries of such importance, that they have been them- 
selves astonished at the extent and splendor of their suc- 
cess. Every such operation successfully performed 
saves a fellow man from inevitable death. 



39 

There are circumstances under which it would be im- 
possible for the superficial observer ; for the physician 
of more experience and expedients, to distinguish be- 
tween an aneurysmal tumor and an abscess. The latter 
requires to be opened by the knife ; the former, if open- 
ed by ignorance, is followed by almost immediate death. 

Richeraud has recorded of Ferrand, chief surgeon of 
Hotel Dieu, that he killed a patient by mistaking an 
aneurism in the arm pit for an abscess. De Haen men- 
tions a person who died in consequence of the opening, 
against the advice of Boerhaave, of a similar tumor 
near the knee. Vesalius pronounced a tumor on the 
back to be an aneurism, but an ignorant practitioner 
opened it and the patient bled to death. Such mistakes 
are easy, except to those thoroughly skilled in anatomy, 
which in all such cases is, therefore necessary to pre- 
vent the most deadly mistakes. 

The effectual stoppage of the flowing of the blood 
from the wounded vessels of the human frame is of the 
last importance. Anatomy has taught the surgeon how 
this may be done. The ancients, we have already said, 
were wholly ignorant of it, and when necessity compelled 
them to the attempt, they resorted to the most cruel ex- 
pedients, either of which besides being inefficacious, 
would now be regarded by a humane man as the ex- 
treme of cruelty, if applied to the least valuable of the 
brute creation. 

Anatomy has taught that the flow of blood can be 
stopped by external pressure, applied to the wounded 
vessel, or if this be not feasible, by boldly cutting down 
to it and applying a ligature. Pare, in a moment of 
enthusiasm, supposed he had been led to this discovery 
by the immediate influence of the Deity, 



40 

It has enabled the surgeon to attempt operations, 
which without it would have been impossible and des- 
perate ; but more, it has taught him that where a he- 
morrhage is apparently so violent as to threaten instant 
death, the mere pressure of a finger directed by unerring 
science may check the living torrent, till there be time 
to tie the vessel up and give nature time and opportuni- 
ty to repair the loss that has been sustained. 

But without that perfect knowledge of the whole hu- 
man frame, of every vein and artery, muscle, nerve and 
bone, — that anatomy only can give ; the surgeon with 
the aid of the best apparatus, w ith the most perfect self 
possession, would find his efforts defeated, and valu- 
able lives would be lost to society. The surgeon must 
be ready on the instant to place his finger on the exact 
spot with certainty, and without pause or hesitation. As 
much so, as Mr. Maelzel is to touch the secret springs 
of his Automata, in order to excite the applause and 
wonder of his spectators. When the ancients attempt- 
ed amputation, from their ignorance of the true 
system of circulation and of the mode of stopping the 
bleeding, the patient usually died under the operation, 
in ipso opere. In the manner in which amputation is 
now performed, not more than one in twenty of she pa- 
tients loses his life, taking into view all the cases, even 
the most desperate, in which it is attempted. In the 
present practice in England, v\here amputation is per- 
formed at the proper time and in a proper manner, it is 
computed, that ninety-five persons out of one hundred 
recover from it. Among the ancients, the operation kill- 
ed ninety-five out of one hundred. Among the moderns 
it cures ninety-five out of one hundred; such are the 
results of dissection and the study of anatomy. 



41 

Another disease which is of frequent occurrence, 
far more frequent than is generally believed; for it is 
found in all conditions of life, with the rich and poor,—* 
at all ages too ; from 

" The infant 

" Mewling and puking in the nurse's arni9"— - 

Up through every gradation in life to 

° The lean and slippered pantaloon, 

" With spectacles on nose and pouch on side ;" — ■ 

or that later and more cheerless scene in the drama of 
life, which 

" Is second childishness and mere oblivion ; 

" Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything : — 

but the agonizing pains of a disease, which even the 
chills of old age cannot divest of their violence or ac 
tivity. This disease is hernia, vulgarly known as " rup- 
ture or burst." 

What is known as strangulated hernia, or such a pres- 
sure upon a protruded intestine as prevents its usual and 
proper motion and evacuations, is a dangerous and some- 
times rapidly fatal disease. The uninformed may easi- 
ly mistake it for inflammation of the bowels, and such a 
mistake must be almost inevitably fatal. The disease 
is often frightfully rapid, as well as fatal in its progress. 
Sir Astley Cooper mentions a case in which a person 
died in eight hours after being attacked with this disease. 

Larrey mentions a case in which a soldier died of 
strangulated hernia in two hours, and this was the se- 
cond instance* that had occurred to this eminent surgeon, 
of such frightful rapidity in this disease. If relief can- 
6 



42 

not be given in this complaint at once, in the usual 
way ; in all bad cases, an immediate and most delicate 
operation becomes necessary ; delay or indecision may 
render it useless, and the patient dies. But before the 
intestine be returned, perhaps an operation may be ne- 
cessary on that, and this can only be done with safety 
by those, whose hearts have been emboldened and 
whose hands have been strengthened by the daily use of 
the dissector's knife. How necessary then, in this class 
of diseases, is a thorough knowledge of anatomy ? 

Every man's experience tells him that the disease is 
of very common occurrence, and that it may be his 
dearest and nearest friend, who will next require the 
presence of the experienced physician and anatomist, 
to perform promptly and unhesitatingly a difficult and 
delicate operation. An experienced practitioner says 
on this subject ; " I have performed this operation thir- 
ty-five times and have often had occasion to lament 
that I performed it too late, but never that I performed 
it too soon." 

Within late years the progress of anatomical science 
has emboldened the surgeon to approach those organs, 
which have been supposed so essential to life as to be 
beyond human skill. The wind-pipe is now successful- 
ly opened and many valuable lives are saved, which 
could be saved in no other way, when by accident the 
wind-wipe has become obstructed. 

It is known, that at times diseases of the throat pre- 
vail with great mortality, and it is also known that the 
extent of diseased structure in such complaints is small, 
compared with many other diseases less fatal ; but the 
great fatality is owing to the small and essential part of 
the human frame, in which the diseased action exists, 



43 

" The Father of his Country," George Washington, 
was cut short of life after a career of usefulness by a 
fatal disease of this kind. May we not hope, that anat- 
omy properly encouraged may teach the surgeon, how 
to wage on this fell destroyer of our race a successful 
war, with the knife and the cautery ; which he would in 
vain attempt with internal medicines and external stim- 
ulants. 

It would be a glorious triumph for American surgeons 
to discover and successfully to use a new, bold and 
speedy remedy for a mortal disease, which cut short the 
earthly career of the greatest of men and best of pat- 
riots ;— though not till he had truly " filled the mea- 
sure OF HIS COUNTRY'S GLORY." 

Within the last twenty-five years we have heard very 
much of Dyspepsia, a malady of general prevalence and 
of afflictive results. Quite recently, a cure is said to 
have been discovered for it by Mr. O. Halstead, a book- 
seller of New-York city, who has published an interest- 
ing account of his process. An examination of this 
publication has satisfied the committee, that without the 
lights thrown by anatomical science on the human econ- 
omy, Mr. Halstead's mode of cure would not have been 
discovered. His mode consists : 

1st. In a relaxation of the external muscles of the 
abdomen by external applications ; and 2dly, in applying 
external excitement through the nervous system to the 
coats of the stomach. Had he not been generally ac- 
quainted with the anatomical structure of man, he 
would never have been brought to the conclusions, he 
is said so successfully to have applied to practice ; and 
if his theory be sound, he has been most fortunate in 
possessing enough sagacity to draw the true inferences 
from the premises, anatomy had supplied him. 



44 

Such being the utility— the indispensable necessity 
both to the physician and surgeon of anatomy ; a know- 
ledge of which is only to be learned first, and then pre- 
served by the frequent and continued dissection of dead 
bodies : 

We are next brought to the inquiry ; — Is there in Dis- 
section any thing wrong or unjustifiable ; or rather is it 
not highly commendable, and ought it not to receive 
the countenance and patronage of every liberal and en- 
lightened community ? 

This inquiry is beset with difficulty. We encounter 
at once a prejudice of great prevalence, long establish- 
ed and most deeply rooted. To those earlier nations, 
whom the infinite wisdom of the Almighty permitted to 
grope in darkness, with that imperfect knowledge of a 
future state, — those faint glimmers of hope, which un- 
aided reason could discover, and who were denied 
that full effulgence of Revelation, which Christianity 
has made to beam upon us ; the superstitious reverence 
for dead bodies was made by early lawgivers imper- 
fectly to answer the purpose, that the sanction of a 
known and certain future and higher state of rewards 
and punishments now affords. The repose of the soul, 
its condition in another world, and even its capacity to 
enter the regions of bliss—however eminent the indi- 
vidual in his life was for virtue, — was supposed to depend 
on the disposal of the body after death. — Eneas by per- 
forming the usual funeral rites hoped to give repose to 
the soul of the murdered Polydorus : — 

" Animumque sepulchro, 
Condimus et magna supremum voce ciemus." 

" And give the soul its requiem in the grave 
" And sound the melancholy last farewell." 

Berc.sford's Translation. 



45 

The Jews considered him that touched a dead body 
polluted, and the Egyptians from whom the Jews 
probably learned this superstition, though they laboured 
to»counteract the course of nature, so far as by embalm- 
ing to preserve the perishable parts of the human frame 
from the decay that follows death, still held those, by 
whom this process of embalming was performed, in hor- 
ror, and actually stoned them, when they appeared in 
places of public resort. 

The heat of Asia Minor and adjacent regions, whence, 
as from a centre have diverged the civilized habits and 
finest fruits and most useful animals, now in common 
use in aid of the arts of civilized life, was so intense as 
to render anatomical pursuits dangerous and offensive ; 
and this may have been one of the reasons for this early 
aversion towards dead bodies, and those who disposed 
of them. In the progress of civilization into Eastern, 
and thence to the shores of Western Europe, the early 
prejudices of the Asiatics accompanied their superior 
refinement and civilization. While Egypt and Phenicia 
were highly commercial, enterprising and refined, ac- 
quainted with the rudiments at least of civilization ; — 
the Greeks were wholly ignorant of them, lived on the 
spontaneous fruits of the earth, clothed themselves with 
skins, which they procured by hunting, and sheltered 
themselves in the forests or in the caverns of their coun- 
try. When the Island of Crete was first subdued, by 
adventurers from Phenicia under Minos, the first step 
in the civilization of Greece was taken. The Egyp- 
tians, who established a Colony at Argos, eleven hun- 
dred years, and the Phenicians under Cadmus, who set- 
tled Boeotia, ten hundred and fifty years before the 
Christian era, taught the natives the useful arts, order 



46 

and civilization, religious rites and ceremonies, and 
above all the use of the Alphabet. Thus also was trans- 
ferred to Greece, thence to Rome, and thence was 
transmitted through the ignorance of the Dark Ages ; 
and afterwards, in aid of that craft by which monks 
and priests are maintained in wealth and influence, down 
to the present age and across the Atlantic, — that super- 
stitious idea of pollution from the contact with a dead 
body, which the most liberalized mind, even now, finds 
it hard to shake off. 

Pluto first taught the Greeks how to perform the last 
offices to the dead body : he was in after ages canon- 
ized, and to him was assigned the empire of the shades, 
— the supreme Monarchy of the dead. 

Most of the thirty thousand gods of Classic Story have 
had a like origin, — being originally mortals, canonized 
for some useful art introduced by them, while living. 
Ceres was a cultivator of the soil ; — Diana loved the 
chase, and taught the use of its weapons ; — Vulcan was 
a blacksmith ; and Bacchus was a right jovial fellow, 
who knew, how both to make good wine and to drink it. 

To the Greeks the funeral rite was not only the last, 
but the most indispensable duty to the dead. Believing 
that interment was necessary for the repose of the soul, 
the worst imprecation in their estimation was, that a 
man might die destitute of burial, and of all forms of 
death, that by shipwreck was therefore the worst. It 
was unlawful with them to pass by a dead carcase with- 
out giving it the forms of interment, even if they went 
no further than to sprinkle upon it some handfuls of 
sand. Hence probably were derived some parts of the 
ritual of Christian burial, as practised by some denomi- 
nations. Hector, as the greatest aggravation of his vie- 



4? 

tory over Patroclus, denied him the rites of burial? 
and Achilles revenged this by denying the same rites to 
the conquered Hector. It was a part of the punishment 
of treason to deny the executed traitors the rites of 
burial. The same punishment was extended to tyrants 
and to those whe laid violent hands on themselves ; for 
all such were considered enemies of their country. Pho- 
cion was first unjustly condemned by the Athenians, and 
after his execution, his body was cast out of Attica, and 
a heavy penalty decreed against any, who should honor 
it with interment. Democritus, the Philosopher, was 
very near being denied burial ; being considered a spend- 
thrift, for having spent his inheritance in foreign travel 
and in searching out the mysteries of nature. 

It is ever the common result with the uninformed 
mind, to bestow that reverence on the external form, 
which if properly directed, should be given only to the 
acting cause and controlling spirit. The Indian, unac- 
quainted with fire-arms, worshipped the gun of the Eu- 
ropean, expecting by so doing to deprecate its destruc- 
tive power. 

"Do not speak evil of the dead ; no, not though their 
children provoke you" — was one of the Laws of Solon. 
It was worthy of that wise lawgiver, and, so far as the 
funeral ritual of the ancients produced the sacred awe, 
which it was intended to excite, and the moral influence 
it was designed to exercise in taming the angry passions 
of men, destitute of the higher sanctions of revealed 
truth, so far it was useful and commendable. But its 
effect in producing a superstitious dread of that clod of 
earth, which, when deprived of its principle of anima- 
tion is destined soon to return to the dust, whence it was 
formed, and be again employed in reproducing some 



48 

new form of animated matter, is only one among many 
illustrations, that history affords, of the weakness of man, 
unaided by revelation, to appreciate his higher destinies, 
and to distinguish between what is due to his immortal 
nature and its mortal and ever changing vesture. 

It is not therefore to be wondered, especially as the 
public mind till within a few years has not been excited 
to a full discussion of the subject, that there exists in 
this community, at the present enlightened period, much 
of this early prejudice against dissection of dead bodies. 

" Truth," says Wollaston, a name dear to science, 
" is the offspring of unbroken meditations, and of thoughts 
often revised and corrected." It certainly requires great 
patience and resolution to dissipate that cloud of dark- 
ness, that surrounds her, or to draw her up from the deep 
well, in which she lies concealed. If the entire commu- 
nity could be as well satisfied of the necessity of the dis- 
section of dead bodies, to prepare the surgeon to oper- 
ate or the physician to administer ; as they are of the ne- 
cessity of surgical operations or of medical doses, in 
certain cases, however excruciating or disagreeable the 
remedies in these cases resorted to may be, they would 
have the same opinions in the one case as in the other, 
and would be as free from prejudice in one case as in 
the other ; — they would hold the dissector and the ope- 
rator in like esteem and honor. But the difficulty is, 
that the early and powerful prejudice against dissection 
having compelled medical men to practise it secretly, 
the community have reaped the benefit of these secret 
studies, without knowing how the knowledge has been 
acquired, and the inevitable result has followed, — a com- 
mon error has prevailed in the whole community, that 
all the essential prerequisites for medical practice may 



49 

be learned without dissection. " Damnant quod non in- 
telligunt." " What I understand," says Socrates, " I 
find to be excellent : and therefore believe that to be of 
equal value which I cannot understand." This was a 
remark worthy of that heathen philosopher, who was 
embued with much of a true Christian spirit, though his 
eyes were never greeted with the light of Revelation, 
which " Kings and prophets longed to see, but died 
without the sight." The course of public opinion with 
most seems to be, in relation to the medical profession, 
to reverse the wise rule, adopted by Socrates. They be- 
lieve that part of it, which they understand and whose 
benefits they feel or see every day, to be excellent and 
praiseworthy ; but that part of it which they do not un- 
derstand, and which superstition and early error has 
shrouded in mystery, and armed with dread to their 
eyes, they believe to be wicked and execrable. Some 
go farther in their career of prejudice. Not only do 
they refuse to be convinced, but they seem to be re- 
solved to transfer a portion of their aversion to the only 
and essential mode of acquiring safe medical science 
from the pursuit, to those who with more liberalized no- 
tions venture to recommend it to public countenance 
and patronage. 

To convince a man against his will is no easy task, 
but to please him against his will far transcends the com- 
pass of human ability. The power of prejudice cannot 
be easily overrated ; it is utterly and essentially incom- 
patible with impartial examination. It comes from ear- 
ly education, from example, from association, or from 
some incidental circumstance ; casting our opinions on 
a given subject in a particular mould ; but making an 
impression on the mind that is seldom obliterated. We 
7 



50 

see it operate with us, who boast of being free from ser- 
vile attachments, superstitious fears, or baseless preju- 
dices. We see it in our religious, our moral opinions, 
and in our political contests ; making, in a breath, those 
men to be esteemed corrupt and unprincipled, whose 
whole lives have been a glorious career of public ser- 
vice, — " without fear and without reproach ;" — and with 
as much ease, affixing upon the brows of passion, ig- 
norance, or selfishness, the bright glories of exclusive 
Republicanism, profound political science, and refined 
and most disinterested love of country. 

Such is the power of prejudice ; — of popular prejudi- 
ces — and this power in all its force and freshness, — the 
Legislator, who would legalize the study of Anatomy, 
must prepare himself to encounter. 

His first duty is to look at the subject as it is, not 
through the coloured medium, with which his early edu- 
cation, associations or any other extrinsic circumstance 
may have surrounded it. He must too look at what is 
to be submitted to the dissecting knife, not as it has 
been, but as it is, and as it is to be. He must rever- 
ence the dead : — but he must understand by this, not to 
look with superstitious awe upon a dead body, as though 
the last struggle of expiring mortality, which reduced it 
to a level with other inanimate matter, had conferred up- 
on it the power of a demon, to be propitiated for good 
or ill. He must understand by reverencing the dead, to 
respect the feelings of the bereaved friends, and to be 
careful of the good character of the deceased — to let the 
ill he may have done die with him, but the good he may 
have achieved be remembered — to the honoring of the 
dead, and to the comforting of the living. This is the 
true, philosophical and religious reverence for the dead ; 



51 

and if there be, as there are, in every populous commu- 
nity, many, of each of whom it may be truly said : 

" Lone, wild and strange, he stood, alike exempt 
" From all affection and from all contempt ;" 

assuredly true wisdom would dictate that the physical 
power and organization, that in life all such had misap- 
plied for any useful purpose, after life had ended should 
be devoted to the promotion of Science and the advance- 
ment of the great stock of human comfort and happi- 
ness. 

In a letter to Elbridge Gerry, late Governor of this 
Commonwealth, dated January 26, 1799, Thomas Jef- 
ferson writes: " I am for encouraging the progress of 
Science in all its branches : and not for raising a hue 
and cry against the sacred name of Philosophy ; for 
awing the human mind by stories of raw head and bloody 
bones, to a distrust of its own vision, and to repose im- 
plicitly on others ; to go backwards, instead of forwards 
to look for improvement ; to believe that government, 
religion, morality, and every other science were in the 
highest perfection in ages of the darkest ignorance ; and 
that nothing can ever be devised more perfect, than 
what was established by our forefathers." This is sound 
doctrine, sanctioned by one of the most truly venerable 
names, that has yet been emblazoned on the world's 
history. 

Let it be applied to the subject now under consider- 
ation, and let not, in this enlightened land, any wise 
man be deterred by "raw head and bloody bones" sto- 
ries, from taking those steps, which shall give a proper 
impulse to anatomical science, and cause it to go "for- 
wards" to the most honorable results. 



52 

Decay is the lot of the mortal part of man. Though 
created in God's own likeness — though gifted with pow- 
ers, that have enabled him to subdue the animals, to 
modify the vegetable creation and to make even the ele- 
ments subservient to his comforts or pleasures, — he still 
must die ; " that longing after immortality" which tells 
man in all ages and places, there is that within him, 
which is destined to survive "the wreck of matter and 
the crush of worlds" we know must be gratified, but in 
another and better world. Man must die. The seed 
sown here, like the seed sown in the earth, must decay, 
must throw off its earthly vesture, before it can burst 
forth into a new existence ; — springing up with a new 
being and with perennial beauty and vigor, producing a 
rich and glorious harvest of immortality. 

From the period of the helpless infant, through the 
period of adolescence, up to manhood, his physical pro- 
gress is upward ; then he is for a while stationary ; then 
the down hill of life commences, and soon the scene for 
this world is shut in forever. Decay soon effaces the 
"lines where beauty was once wont to linger," and noth- 
ing is left of the mortal part of the proud " Lord of Cre- 
ation y " but matter — as lifeless, as insensate, as the stones 
on which we daily tread. But the change does not end 
here. This lifeless and insensate matter is destined 
soon to be commixed and lost in the great mass of mat- 
ter, which composes the earth on which we live, and 
is again to be employed, in the great business of repro- 
duction for some other of Nature's works. The same 
particles of matter which made a part of the mortal 
frame of the fearless Hampden, or, of the not less fear- 
less, but far less patriotic Cromwell, may have since be- 
come incorporated with the oaks that overshadowed their 



53 

graves : those oaks have been cut down and converted 
into ship timber, and that timber employed upon those 
ships perhaps, which bore to our shores, a half century 
since, the myrmidons of tyranny and oppression. 

He, who a century hence plucks a relic from the tomb 
of Napoleon, or from the tomb of our own far greater 
and more glorious Washington, perhaps will little think 
that he may bear away with him some of the same par- 
ticles of matter, which once formed the noblest hearts 
and clearest heads, the world had ever seen. 

" Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away ; 
Oh ! that the earth, which kept the world in awe, 
Should patch a wall, t' expel the winter's flaw !" 

But so it is ; — matter remains the same and unchang- 
ed as it was created — but its combinations are ever 
changing, and limited only by the wisdom of the All- 
wise mind by which they are directed. " It is not from 
man alone that nature exacts this tribute of decay. If 
we extend our observation throughout the universe, we 
shall discover analogous changes going on in all ani- 
mate and inanimate matter. There is in all things be- 
longing to our globe, a perpetual tendency to change of 
form, without the destruction or annihilation of any one 
principle. Whenever animation is finally suspended, 
the chemical affinities of the mass come into operation, 
the forms, which lately withstood all external changes, 
become affected by the slightest vicissitudes of heat and 
moisture, and speedily putrefy. The co-operation of 
vast numbers of insects hastens the disintegration ; the 
aqueous and aerial particles exhale, while the solid and 
more earthy portions go to aid in the composition of a 



54 

richer soil for the benefit of other forms of animated 
bodies. Thus all things must change, according to their 
nature, from the granite mountains to the mushroom on 
the dung-hill. It is the attribute of God alone to be 
" without variableness or shadow of turning," to be im- 
moveable, while all else is in unceasing motion. 

" Tu ! Tempus ab aevo ire jubes, 
Stabilisque manens, das cuncta moveri." Boethius. 

All dislike of dissection, so far as the dead are con- 
cerned, is entirely unphilosophical ; nay more, it is un- 
worthy of any man who properly appreciates the value 
of his immortal nature, and the true character and des- 
tiny of its habitation in its present sphere of being. 
Who would not prefer, were his own feelings only con- 
cerned, to be useful even after death to his survivors, 
rather than to fester and decay — to feed the numerous 
worms and to undergo the slow and disgusting process 
of chemical decomposition, in the silent recesses, 
gloomy vaults and mephitic vapours of the Charnel 
House ? To use again the language of a most elo- 
quent writer and most devoted follower of science ; " as 
to the repose of the tomb, the disturbance of the dead, 
it is mockery of common sense and totally absurd : it 
impugns the verity of the religion, we believe most holy : 
it is an indignity offered to the character of the Su- 
preme. What avails your profound interments — your six 
feet of earth or iron coffin or leaden shrouds ? The mo- 
ment life departs, every breeze that blows, wafts myriads 
of insects to the feast : — they deposit their eggs unseen 
by the friends, who watch at the side of the corpse : 
committed with the body to the earth, they are dormant 
only until sufficient heat is evolved by putrefaction to 



55 

call them into activity : — they then feed to fatness on 
the rankling corse : and when ready to assume their 
perfect shape, work their way to the surface and wing 
their flight to repeat a similar process on other dead. 
Tell us not then of the repose of the tomb : when bodies 
we so carefully deposit in earth are not only dissolved 
by the chemical affinities of their own elements, but 
serve as food to myriads of insects, and are sooner or 
later carried abroad upon the four winds of Heaven." 

" Grant that every precaution be taken : and that we 
pile defences around these perishing relics, heaping 
brick or marble, or granite upon them ? It is but de- 
ferring the disturbance of the repose a few years lon- 
ger, until the monuments themselves, perish and are no 
more, from the uninterrupted operation of those laws, 
which command all matter to change form. The finest 
sand washed by the surf on the shore, once formed an 
integral part of mountains, which might in their day 
have been called everlasting, but which nature forbade 
to be immutable." The same eloquent writer again 
says "Some persons, well informed upon almost every 
other subject associate the idea of anatomy with barba- 
rousness and cruelty. They regard the man who strews 
the plain with thousands of dead, immolated for the 
gratification of his ambition as a hero, worthy of laurels 
and applause ; while they view the devoted student and 
follower of science almost with disgust and are ever 
ready to join in the clamor against him as a violator of 
the repose of the tomb : a disturber of the dead. Stran- 
gest of all, this happens in a Christian land, where de- 
vout and faithful ministers of the Gospel are daily em- 
ployed in declaring that the soul is immortal, the body 



56 

corruptible and evanescent and the Creator omnipo- 
tent." 

We make one more extract as it affords a concise 
and complete view of the difficulties, now presented in 
this Commonwealth to the attainment of medical sci- 
ence. " The object of dissection is to display the cu- 
rious and wonderful structure of man, to investigate the 
causes of disarray and disease, in order to minister to 
the afflicted : it is to examine the dead before their 
first great change of form, in order that we may success- 
fully bind up the wounds and mitigate the sufferings of 
the living. It is not mere curiosity that leads us to en- 
dure all the privations and unpleasantness in making 
such investigations. We come with the respectful and 
serious earnestness of men, aware of whose presence 
we are in : we study the instruments of motion that wc 
may prevent it from being suspended : we associate 
with death that we may preserve life : we submit to sad 
and solitary silence that we may speak peace and health 
to the diseased : we breathe noisome, sepulchral vapours 
and drive the life-blood from our pallid cheeks to stag- 
nate around our hearts, that we may gain the only know- 
ledge, which can efficiently aid us in warding off the 
thousand ills, that frail mortality is heir to. Surely we 
have enough to endure, we suffer enough in feeling 
and health, in foregoing the enjoyments of social life, 
and in encountering the stupid misrepresentations of the 
ignorant : might we not be permitted to hope we should 
escape the prejudices of those, who would fain be es- 
teemed enlightened? The man who devotes himself to 
a life of toil and privation for the benefit of his friends 
and community is lauded for his self-denial, his benevo- 
lence and patriotism : but he who transcends the influ- 



51 

ence of prejudice and ignorance, who separates himself 
from his fellow men in order to serve them, who schools 
his own feelings to endure, what otherwise would he as 
repugnant to him, as others, and submits without com- 
plaint, to all accidents connected with a study so gener- 
ally misunderstood ; instead of being considered, as he 
actually is, a benefactor to his race, is too often regard- 
ed as something unnatural, insensible to all human emo- 
tions, or, worthy of reprehension and injury for the very 
conduct which gives him the strongest claim upon pub 
lie gratitude and respect." 

Thus far we have seen that dissection, so far from be- 
ing wrong or censurable, is in every respect worthy of 
the encouragement and countenance of the good and 
enlightened. Its objects are praiseworthy — its ends 
most important and beneficial to society, and the objec- 
tions to it unphilosophical and imaginary. But there is 
a solid and serious objection to giving unlimited range 
to this branch of Medical Inquiry. It arises from the 
outraged feelings of surviving friends. 

The principle of association is one of the most active 
and important, and when well governed, one of the most 
useful principles of the moral and intellectual man. It 
teaches us to transfer the love we bear to the individual, 
to the form and features, with which that individual is 
inseparably associated in our minds. A parent, for 
instance, loves a child with an affection that knows not 
end, even with life. It is not the limbs, face or form, that 
is loved, but the person, — the individual — the immortal 
soul and its accompanying intellectual powers, moral prin- 
ciples and tender affections. Mutilate those limbs, dis- 
figure that face, or emaciate and change that form, by 
wasting or nauseous disease, this love knows no change ; 
8 



58 

it is neither mutilated, disfigured nor wasted, — the indi- 
viduality of the person loved remains the same. But 
still there is for the form, the inanimate remains of those 
we love, the tenderest feeling ; it recalls all that they 
have said or done for our happiness, and the remem- 
brance of it comes over the affections, 

" Like the sweet South, 
"That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
" Stealing and giving odour ;" — 

and we inevitably tranfer to the outward form of a de- 
parted friend, much of that affection which the living 
individual enjoyed before death. It is the same princi- 
ple as that which gives, in the eyes of the superstitious, 
value to the supposed relics of Saints and Marty re, which 
makes the spot where the ardent lover first met his mis- 
tress, be it as barren and desolate as the isle of St. He- 
lena, a paradise, and the smallest token of reciprocated 
love, — be it a trinket or a lock of hair, of more imagin- 
ary value than the diamonds of Golconda, or the pearls 
of Ceylon. It is an active, useful principle of human 
action, given us for wise purposes, and should never be 
wantonly violated. 

And i|: is to prevent this result, that some change is 
now required in the laws relating to the Sepulchres of 
the Dead. — They are violated,— the feelings of surviving 
friends are outraged — the community is excited, — old 
prejudices are confirmed and new 7 ones are created, against 
the pursuit of a laborious and most necessary study. 
Our young men, who are laboring to prepare themselves 
to become eminent in the medical profession and to suc- 
ceed to the places now occupied by Warren, Physic, 
Chapman, Shattuck, Jackson and other distinguished 



59 

physicians, when the common destiny of man shall have 
added their names also to those of Brooks, Eustis, Dear- 
born, Warren of Bunker Hill, John Warren and a long 
list of departed merit ; — are expatriated and obliged to 
resort to foreign schools ; — to the great loss of capital as 
well as science at home, — for no other reason than the 
want of a more liberal, just and enlightened legislation 
on the subject of Anatomy. When, therefore, the ex- 
citement, which exists at times in the community, is ap- 
pealed to as an argument against legalizing anatomy, it 
shows that the individuals thus using it, do so without 
adequate reflection. 

Why is it that graves have been recently violated in 
Milton, Roxbury and in this city ? — Not long since in a 
town on the Connecticut River, and again recently in 
Vermont ?- — Why is it that we are horrified with the truly 
lamentable account of the husband, almost frantic by 
learning that the remains of her he loved living, and 
whose memory he still hallows, have been removed from 
the place where he had deposited them, — that the lifeless 
form of her whom, while living, 

" He would not suffer even the winds of 
Heaven to visit too roughly," 

are to be exposed to the rude gaze of strangers. Such 
things ought not to be ; so long as the nature of man re- 
mains unchanged — and so long as association retains its 
power over the affections, no circumstances can excuse 
or justify them ; — no, not even the achievement of the 
proudest discovery that medical science can boast. 

But we again ask why these outrages upon the good 
feelings and the moral principles of society ? 

We answer unqualifiedly : because your law relating 



eo 

to the sepulchres of the dead, operating indirectly on 
the study of anatomy, offers a premium to immoral, des- 
perate men to run any risk but that of detection, to ob- 
tain subjects for dissection. In an examination before 
a committee of the British Parliament, an eminent sur- 
geon, Sir Astley Cooper, said he could obtain the body 
of any man in England, however high in place or influ- 
ence, for dissection, provided he could pay enough for it. 

The same remark here applies with almost equal 
truth : give money enough and there may be found des- 
perate men, who would enter any mausoleum, however 
strongly barred, and rifle its contents. If we would save 
the community from the most unhappy excitements, the 
dying from the most painful apprehensions, and secure 
effectually the sepulchres of the dead not only from vio- 
lation, but what is worse, a constant fear that they may 
be violated, we must revise our legislation on the sub- 
ject, and devise some mode that with a strict regard to 
equal rights of the community, will provide a supply of 
subjects for anatomical study. 

III. An important consideration here presents itself in 
the inquiry, who has the greatest interest in facilitating 
the study of anatomy. 

Is it the medical student, or the community ; and if the 
community, is it the few, or the great majority, that 
have the most special interest ? 

A little reflection will, we think, render it apparent, 
that the Medical Profession are the least interested in 
any change of law to afford facility for the study of 
anatomy. We, of course, lay aside all considerations of 
professional pride in making this estimate. But whether 
anatomy be studied or not, it is certain that the amount 
of disease will not be diminished — the amount of human 



6! 

suffering may be much increased — accidents will still 
happen, and if we have not among us physicians and 
surgeons to practice, according to knowledge, we shall 
have enough practitioners, to kill according to rule. 
Physicians instead of studying facts and observing na- 
ture, as she operates both in health and sickness, will 
learn theories, or make them, according as memory or 
imagination may predominate in each individual ; and 
although the value of their services would be much less, 
the amount of their fees would not be reduced. 

On the other hand, the community could not be so 
skilfully or faithfully served, and, the lives of many in- 
valuable persons would of necessity be sacrificed for the 
sake of an illiberal prejudice. The rich, the few to 
whom accident or inheritance or superior sagacity had 
given ample means of commanding the best services in 
the United States or Europe, would not suffer in this 
respect. It would be the middling classes, and espe- 
cially the laborious and deserving poor, who are from 
their daily vocations compelled to be exposed to acci- 
dent, and to those calamities, which particularly re- 
quire the aid of the surgeon and of precise anatomical 
science. Expel by your laws anatomical science from 
the limits of Massachusetts, — like the Egyptians, follow 
its professors with stones and maledictions, it would be 
the poor and great majority who would suffer from such 
fatuity and phrensy. The man rolling in his wealth, 
would proceed to New-York, to Philadelphia, to Lon- 
don, or to Paris, to obtain the aid required for his relief, 
or he would summon and obtain the aid from one of 
those cities to relieve him here, were he unable to pro- 
ceed thither ; he is able to pay the price, be it ever so 
exorbitant. But the man in middling circumstances can- 



62 

not beggar his family to purchase relief — the poor man 
were he to sell himself and his family to slavery could 
not command the means; and they die : — they are lost 
to the community ; and lives perhaps, far more valuable 
than that of the rich man, are cut off in a career of use- 
fulness, which might have been prolonged by a liberal 
policy towards anatomical science. It should ever be 
remembered, that the labouring classes, in proportion to 
their numbers, are far more likely than any other class 
in the peaceful pursuits of life, to require the interfer- 
ence of surgical aid or of that medical aid, which is 
dependent on a knowledge of Anatomy. They bear 
heavy burdens, they scale giddy heights, they use at 
times dangerous tools and instruments, and are in fact 
more or less at the hazard of their lives in the pursuit 
of their daily vocations. It is therefore the great ma- 
jority of the community, embracing the agriculturist, 
the manufacturer, the mechanic and the mariner, that 
have a deep, direct and personal interest in the promo- 
tion of anatomical science to its highest attainable per- 
fection. 

IV. We have no direct law in this Commonweal; h upon 
the subject of Anatomical Dissections. But there are 
two laws, which have an important, though not an im- 
mediate bearing on this subject. In 1815 a law was 
passed for the protection of the sepulchres of the dead, 
which punished the exhumation of any dead body, or 
the knowingly and wilfully receiving, concealing or dis- 
posing of any such dead body, by a fine of not more than 
$1000, or imprisonment for not more than one year. 

Before the passing of this act, several cases at com- 
mon law were brought before the Supreme Judicial 
Court : in all of which, where there was a conviction, 



63 

the party was punished. Where it appeared that the 
exhumation was for subjects for Dissection, a small fine 
was imposed. The last case of this kind was against 
a now eminent physician, then of Essex County, in 
which several important law points were raised, but the 
case does not appear to have been reported. Under 
the statute, there have been several prosecutions, con- 
victions and punishments. A similar statute exists in 
New-Hampshire and in Vermont. In N. Hampshire the 
punishment is by fine, not to exceed $2000, whipping 
not to exceed 39 stripes, or imprisonment not to exceed 
one year — all or any of these punishments to be inflicted 
at the discretion of the Court. 

The Vermont statute varies from that of New-Hamp- 
shire only in the fine, which is $1000 instead of $2000. 
The other provisions are the same. 

In the case of Rex vs. Lynn, it was decided by the 
Court of Kings Bench that to take a body from the 
grave for any purpose, was a misdemeanor at Common 
Law. The punishments inflicted by the courts, when the 
bodies have been taken for purposes of dissection, have 
been generally a small fine. But, quite recently, re- 
spectable individuals have been tried in England for 
receiving, with intent to dissect, a dead body, knowing 
the same to have been unlawfully disinterred : — so that 
it is now said, that scarcely a student or teacher of Anat- 
omy can be found in England, who under the law as 
now interpreted, is not indictable for a misdemeanor. 
With equal truth it may be said here, that in Massachu- 
setts a student or teacher of Anatomy cannot be found 
who is not indictable under the statute of 1815. 

While the Law of this Commonwealth is thus severe 
against the exhumation of dead bodies, which we shall 



64 - 

hereafter show, is the only mode now of obtaining sub- 
jects for dissection, another law has been passed, by 
which every practitioner of Medicine is required to ob- 
tain a degree at Harvard University, or licence from the 
Medical Society, before he can maintain an action for 
any debt for his professional services. The licence or 
degree is given on an examination, and one of the pre- 
requisites required for this examination is, that the ap- 
plicant shall have gone through such a course of dissec- 
tion as shall give him a minute knowledge of Anatomy. 
So that our laws now involve the manifest absurdity and 
injustice of requiring, on one page of the Statute Book, 
certain prerequisites for the honorable practice of the 
Healing Art, and on another page of the same Statute 
Book, of prohibiting under severe penalties, the acqui- 
sition of the means, by which only these essential pre- 
requisites of Medical education and skill can be learned. 
The most deplorable effect of the present condition 
of our laws is to create a class of men in the communi- 
ty — the exhumators of dead bodies — who are remarka- 
ble for desperation of character, and who are by their 
employment fitted for other violations of the establish- 
ed laws and peace of the community. Were we to 
imagine an employment best calculated to brutalize the 
whole man, we should select that of the desperate 
" body snatcher ;" who with the penalties of the laws 
and the execrations of society in bold relief before him, 
still musters enough of courage and desperation to 
prowl around grave yards in the dead of the night, re- 
gardless how much the feelings of society may be out- 
raged, so that he can obtain the means of securing the 
price of his iniquity. Such a man — 



65 

"Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, 
The motions of his spirit are as dull as night. 
And his affections dark as Erebus." 

The number of this class of men is already considera- 
ble among us, and their desperate character may be 
judged of from the following circumstance, of which 
your committee have been credibly informed. They 
are generally men rendered desperate by their vices. 
An eminent surgeon of this city, some time since, when 
the difficulty of obtaining anatomical subjects was at its 
height, was offered subjects at a given price by an indi- 
vidual of this character. The surgeon referred to, not 
knowing his character, accepted his offer and the price 
was agreed to. But what was the surprise of this emi- 
nent surgeon in learning after a few days, that this per- 
son had boldly broken into and robbed private tombs of 
their contents. Of course, he ordered him to desist 
from his impolitick and unjustifiable proceedings, and 
the individual was soon compelled to abscond, to avoid 
the penalties of the law. This circumstance shows 
conclusively, that the present state of the laws, unless 
anatomy is to be abandoned, offers an indirect induce- 
ment to the most deplorable outrages on the feelings of 
surviving friends, and that, so far from protecting the 
sepulchres of the dead, it indirectly induces their 
violation. Speaking of the exhumation of the dead, 
the able report on anatomy, made in 1828, to the Bri- 
tish parliament, remarks: — "Nearly the whole of the 
individuals" (persons occasionally employed in raising 
dead bodies for dissection) " are occupied also in thiev- 
ing, and form the most desperate and abandoned class 
in the community. If with a view to favour anatomy, 
exhumation should be allowed to continue, it appears 
9 



68 

almost a necessary consequence that thieves also should 
be tolerated." " It should seem useless, however, with 
a view to exhumation to endeavour to execute the ex- 
isting laws with increased severity, or to enact new and 
more rigorous ones. The effect of interpreting and 
executing the laws with increased rigour has been, not 
to suppress exhumation, but to raise the price of dead 
bodies and to increase the number of the exhumators. 
So long as there is no legalized mode of supplying the 
dissecting schools, so long the practice of disinterment 
will continue : but if other measures were devised 
which would legalize, and ensure a regular plentiful and 
cheap supply, the practice of disinterring bodies, and of 
receiving them, would of necessity be entirely abandon- 
ed." This reasoning applies with full force to the con- 
dition of things in this Commonwealth. It is idle to 
hope to accomplish the protection of the sepulchres of 
the dead, unless some provision be made for a supply 
of anatomical subjects. The increased severity of the 
laws against their violation will only enhance the price 
of subjects ; — they will still be obtained. Ten years 
since the price of subjects was from $5 to $10 each ; 
► -now, it is from $15 to $20. From 15 to 20 subjects 
are annually required for the medical school in Boston. 
The community under the present law will from time to 
time be outraged by excitements, painfully distressing, 
and a class of men will increase among us, who will 
have learned among the dead, that hardihood of cha- 
racter and recklessness of legal restraint, which shall 
make them most dangerous to the living. 

The only legalized mode of supplying subjects for 
dissection is the sentence or order of the Supreme Ju- 
dicial Court of this state, and of the Circuit Court of 



67 

the United States, in capital convictions within their 
respective jurisdictions. The insufficiency of this sup- 
ply may be inferred from the statements of the secreta- 
ry of the Commonwealth, and of the clerk of the United 
States District Court. The secretary of the Common- 
wealth states, in answer to inquiries addressed him by 
the chairman of this committee, that the whole number 
of executions or suicides of convicts from January 1, 
1800 to December 31, 1830, is but 26, less than one a 
year. The clerk of the United States District Court, 
in reply to like inquiries from the chairman states, that 
from the adoption of the Federal constitution and the 
first organization of the Federal Courts, down to the pre- 
sent time, the whole number of executions and of sui- 
cides of convicts, sentenced by that court in this Dis- 
trict, is but fourteen, being about one in three years. 
The absolute inadequacy of this supply, from either or 
both of these sources for any useful purpose, added to 
the consideration that the infliction of dissection as a 
part of the sentence in capital cases, has done much to 
create, and will do much to continue, the prejudice 
against anatomy existing in the community, has suggest- 
ed to your committee the expediency of a different pro- 
vision from that now existing, in relation to the dead 
bodies of those capitally convicted, so far as the subject 
is within the control of the State legislation. If dissec- 
tion be no longer inflicted by our State courts, as a ter- 
ror and disgrace, — full and free discussion of this inter- 
esting and important topic may, we hope, soon disabuse 
the public mind of its worst prejudices in relation to it. 
Your committee cannot doubt, that the deservedly 
eminent judge and scholar, who holds the United States 
courts in this Judicial District, will so far as his import- 
ant influence extends on this and every other subject, be 



68 

found against unfounded prejudice, and on the side ctf 
liberal science and true philosophy. To use again and 
to adopt the language of the British parliamentary Re- 
port, " The committee would be very unwilling to inter- 
fere with any penal enactment which might have, or 
seem to have, a tendency to prevent the commission 
of atrocious crimes : but as it may reasonably be 
doubted whether the dread of dissection could be reck- 
oned among the obstacles to the perpetration of such 
crimes, and as it is manifest that the clause in question 
must create a strong and mischievous prejudice against 
the' practice of anatomy, the committee think them- 
selves justified in concluding that more evil than good 
results from its continuance." 

V. From the preceding remarks and the facts already 
stated, the inference is very easy, that in England, the 
study of Anatomy is much embarrassed by the there es- 
tablished laws. Such is the fact : but the most enlight- 
ened politicians and philosophers of that country — sec- 
ond to none other in science, enterprise and intelligence 
• — are now at work, preparing the way for a more liberal 
system. 

In France — a country to which every American heart 
turns with affection and kindness — and whose recent 
glorious efforts in the hallowed cause of freedom and 
the "rights of man," has refreshed our old, and awakened 
in us a crowd of new attachments ; — with a liberality 
and love of true science, which for the last now almost 
half century has distinguished her legislation, — has given 
ample encouragement and facilities to the study of An- 
atomy. The law upon the subject of taking away dead 
bodies for any purpose among the ancient Franks, was 
extremely severe — outlawry and other severe penalties. 



69 

The system now established at Paris, is the following : 

" The administration of all the Hospitals at Paris, since 
the period of the Revolution, has been confided to a pub- 
lic board of management. The rule at the Hospital is, 
that every patient who dies shall be attended by a priest, 
and that, after the performance of the usual ceremonies 
of the Catholic Church, the body shall be removed from 
the Chapel attached to the Hospital, to the dead room, 
and there remain for twenty-four hours, if not sooner 
claimed by the relatives. Bodies may be examined af- 
ter death, by the medical officers attached to a Hospital, 
in order to ascertain the cause of death ; but may not 
be dissected by them. A body, if claimed by friends 
after examination, is sewed in a clean cloth before being 
delivered to them. If not claimed within twenty four 
hours after death, after being enveloped in a cloth in 
similar manner, it is sent in the manner hereinafter de- 
scribed, to one of the dissecting schools." 

" There are no private dissecting schools at Paris, but 
two public ones : that of the Ecole de la Medicine and 
that adjoining the Hopital de la Pitie. These are sup- 
plied exclusively from the different Hospitals and from 
the institutions for maintaining paupers, the supply from 
certain of these establishments being appropriated to 
one school and that from the remaining establishments 
to the other." 

" The distribution of subjects to the two schools is 
confided to a public officer, the Chef des Travaux Ana- 
tomiques. He causes them to be conveyed from the 
Hospital, at an early hour, in a covered carriage, so 
constructed as not to attract notice, to a building at the 
schools, set apart for that purpose. They are then dis- 
tributed by the prosecteurs to the students; and after 



70 

dissection, being again enveloped in cloth, are conveyed 
to the nearest place of interment." 

" The students at the Ecole de la Medicine consist of 
young men, who have distinguished themselves at a 
public examination, though the person at the head of 
the establishment is also allowed to admit pupils to dis- 
sect. The school of La Pitie is open to students of all 
nations, who, on entering themselves may be supplied 
with as many subjects as they require, at a price vary- 
ing according to the state in which the body is, from 
three to twelve francs ; priority of choice, however be- 
ing given to the eleves internes of the different hosoitals, 
and the subjects being delivered to them at a reduced 
price. English surgeons were here permitted, till late- 
ly, to engage private rooms for the purpose of lecturing 
on anatomy to students of their own nation, and to su- 
perintend their labours in the dissecting room. From 
the protection and facilities which have thus been af- 
forded to the study of anatomy at Paris, it has become 
the resort of the medical students of all nations : the 

PRACTICE OF EXHUMATION IS WHOLLY UNKNOWN.* and 

the feelings of the people appear not to be violated." 

This system is a philosophical, liberal and truly 
Christian one : — it makes the mortal and earthly frame 
what it ought to be — subservient to the intellectual de- 
velopment, improvement and power of man. It does 
not attempt to cast around it a sort of superstitious awe 
— to subdue and render the soul subject to a mere form 
of inanimate nature — in a manner which religion does 
not require and which reason cannot justify. At the 
same time, it does not attempt to destroy — but careful- 
ly respects, those tender and powerful associations, 
which are stronger than reason and which improve the 



71 

heart and soften the feelings of the least sensitive breast* 
Proceeding on the true principle, that dissection is only 
objectionable so far as it may wound the sensibilities of 
the surviving friends of the deceased — it sets apart for 
this useful and not dishonorable office the remains only 
of those, who have not a friend nor relative to claim 
the privilege of paying the last sad office to their mor- 
tal remains. It thus runs parallel with public senti- 
ment ; and at the same time the great interests of sci- 
ence and humanity are advanced — the national glory is 
brightened by improvements and discoveries of great im- 
portance and magnitude, and Paris is made the Grand 
Emporium of Medical Science, both for Europe and 
America. The number of students annually licensed 
in this Commonwealth, is about fifty. What portion of 
these are obliged to resort to Paris to complete their 
education cannot be ascertained, but it is known to be 
a very considerable portion. 

Your Committee have thus at length examined and 
discussed the interesting subject entrusted to their 
charge. They have gone thus fully into it, because 
they were aware it was enveloped in the mists of dark 
prejudice — that the community were too generally un- 
informed in relation to it ; anatomical pursuits having 
been heretofore, we think, erroneously, conducted secret- 
ly, and been surrounded in the eyes of the great mass 
of the community with a sort of mystery. This might 
do in an age of empiricism ; — but in an enlightened age, 
nothing is more unwise for those, who covet a liberal 
legislation on a matter of liberal science, than to court 
the appearance of secrecy, or of a shrinking from the 
public gaze. Truth loves the light, — it invites investi- 
gation, and, in relation to the subject of anatomy, it on- 



n 

ly requires to have the public mind put into vigorous 
action, by proper impulses, and there cannot be a doubt 
of a result, such as every reflecting mind and lover of 
science may approve. There is nothing more true than 
the old maxim, omne ignotumpro magnet habetur. Let the 
public be made acquainted with the subject, and brought 
into immediate contact with it, and they will understand 
its' true proportions, and no longer regard it as some gi- 
gantic monster, possessed of the cruelty of the tiger 
and the appetite of a cannibal. 

In this report, we have traced the progress of ana- 
tomical science from the first and rude attempts of the 
Greeks, through a slow progress of near 2000 years, 
when it may be said to have assumed the character of 
a science, studied and taught upon philosophical princi- 
ples. We have shown its importance to the physician, 
as well as to the surgeon ; we have farther shown that it 
is to be learned by dissection only. We have shown that 
dissection is in every respect a laudable employment, 
except when so followed as to outrage the feelings of 
the surviving friends— that a change in the law, operat- 
ing now indirectly on the practice of dissection, is the 
only mode of preventing the frequent recurrence of such 
outrages ; that the " working-men" in the community are 
specially interested in affording every facility for the ac- 
quisition of a knowledge of anatomy ; that the laws now 
existing in this Commonwealth exhibit the manifest in- 
consistency of requiring of every medical practitioner a 
degree of knowledge, that other provisions of the law 
render it impossible for him to obtain at home, without 
a violation of the laws ; that exhumators of dead bodies, 
a class of desperadoes, are in consequence growing up 
in our community ; that independent of the impolicy of 



73 

making dissection ignominious, by ordering those exe- 
cuted for capital crimes to be dissected, the supply so 
obtained is wholly inadequate to answer any useful pur- 
pose ; and we have then shown that for almost fifty 
years a liberal and philosophical system had been pur- 
sued in France on the subject of anatomy and dissec- 
tions, which had there effectually secured the sepul- 
chres of the dead from violation — saved the feelings of 
the people from painful excitements and deplorable out- 
rages, and besides making France the grand resort from 
Europe and America for the attainment of medical and 
surgical science, has made the amount of medical skill 
in France far to surpass that of any other nation in Eu- 
rope or America. 

VI. It now becomes the duty of your Committee to 
present their own conclusions, on this whole matter, 
which they would recommend to the sanction of the 
General Court. They may be thus stated : That — 

1st. Anatomy is an important science, whose success- 
ful cultivation and improvement is of essential interest 
to all classes of the population of this Commonwealth: 

lid. Dissection for anatomical purposes is highly 
laudable, and deserving of public encouragement, so far 
as it can be done without violence to the feelings of sur- 
viving relatives or friends. 

Hid. That the Laws of the Commonwealth, which 
now act indirectly on the study of anatomy, require 
change, and that the study of anatomy should be legal- 
ized. 

I. For this purpose the Committee propose so far 
to alter the statute of 1815, for the "protection of the 
sepulchres of the dead" as to authorize the proper Mu- 
nicipal authorities, in the city of Boston, and in the sev- 
10 



74 

eral towns of the Commonwealth, to deliver to any 
physician, regularly licensed according to the laws of 
this Commonwealth, such dead bodies as may be re- 
quired to be buried at the public expense and which 
shall not be claimed by any one person, whether kin or 
friend or acquaintance, within twenty-four hours from 
and after death. This permission should be accompan- 
ied with restrictions, that the physician so receiving a 
subject, after he had used it for scientific research, 
should be bound to have its remains properly interred, 
with the religious funeral rites, that a Christian people 
ought to require and must approve. 

II. The proviso, authorising the Courts to dispose of 
bodies of executed criminals for dissection should be 
repealed. 

III. That the penalty for disinterring dead bodies or 
for receiving them, knowing them to have been so dis- 
interred, should be increased, so as effectually to guard 
against any attempt to transcend those limits for the 
supply of anatomical subjects, which this enlightened 
Legislature may designate. These views the Commit- 
tee have combined in a bill, which is appended to this 
Report. 

Your Committee do not believe that any substantial 
objections, can be found against such provisions. If it 
be said, that the idea of being used after death for dis- 
section will harrow up the feelings of those, who are 
subjects for the public charity while alive, we answer 
that this objection is wholly unphilosophical ; and be- 
sides it will not bear close examination. It was once 
eloquently remarked to a former Legislature by a dis- 
tinguished member of the House, that, he never could 
vote to treat poverty as a crime. To this honorable 



75 

sentiment, your Committee unqualifiedly subscribe. To 
violate it by any enactment would be virtually to disre- 
gard a cardinal principle in our Republican System — 
that " all men are born free and equal" — and it would 
be farther in disregard of an enlightened self-interest. 
Laying aside the fluctuations of business, and the dan- 
ger of unforeseen accident : from the changes and di- 
visions of property by descent, the family that is rich 
now may soon be numbered among the poor. Such 
events are of frequent occurrence, and it is right it 
should be so. Lazarus as well as Dives, in the equal 
distribution of good and evil by Providence, should have 
each his share of the good things of life. No Legisla- 
tor, therefore, however prosperous, rich or successful 
now, could agree to any inequitable legislation in re- 
lation to the poor without being prepared, ultimately to 
legislate against, — if not himself — his successors and 
immediate representatives. 

Of those, who depend on the aid of public charity 
for support, and who also may be justly ranked among 
the meritorious poor, reduced by disease, accident or 
incapacity — all have friends, if not relatives, who feel- 
ing a strong and lively sympathy would always seek the 
opportunity of testifying it by paying to their earthly re- 
mains, the last sad office of friendship. All su^h would 
be as inviolably protected in the house, appointed for all 
living, — as the proudest and most powerful of their 
more fortunate fellow-men. Those, wfcose bodies would 
be unclaimed, are the vicious and depraved ; and per- 
haps foreigners,— -but probably rery few of this class, 
because an honorable and active feeling of nationality 
among other resident foreigners would prevent it. The 
unclaimed bodies of the vicious then, would afford the 



76 

chief supply of subjects for anatomical dissections. And 
can an intelligent Legislator, divesting himself of preju- 
dice, refuse to grve this aid to the cause of science and of 
science too, essentially and most deeply important to socie- 
ty and especially to every " working man" in society ? 
Can it be wrong to make the insensible, material organ- 
ization of those, who by their own vices had been made, 
while living, dependent on society for support, to con- 
tribute to the well being of society after death ? Take 
for instance the abandoned, shameless prostitute, — who 
had no respect for herself when living — the common trull 
— of " the general camp, pioneers and all," — or,the thrift- 
less vagrant — the depraved sot — who has " put an enemy 
into his lips to steal away his brains," till he has become 
mentally, morally and physically corrupted and emas- 
culated ;— a living caricature of his own species ; — each 
of them too, by their evil propensities sent prematurely 
down to the grave — " unwept and unhonored." They 
shared the benefits, but bore none of the burdens of the 
social state and of civilization — perhaps they had ter- 
rible maladies alleviated and life prolonged by medical 
and surgical science ; — supplied at the public expense ; 
-and shall it be denied to the patient professor of that 
difficult and responsible science to make use of the 
physical organization of such after death, to enable him 
to extend \u S own usefulness and the limits of human 
knowledge ? Religion says ; no. Reason says ; no. 
And shall an enlightened Legislature, giving itself up 
to the control of prejudice, refuse what both Religion 
and Reason approve }. It will be borne in mind, that 
every dissection will be made under the eye of a re- 
sponsible physician ;— that every respect will be paid to 
the prejudices of the public mind— and that religious 



77 

rites and honorable interment will be performed for 
the remains of every subject, after it may have answer- 
ed the purposes of science. 

It appears from a statement obtained at the Boston 
Health Office, that from January 1, 1830, to December 
21, inclusive, there were 194 burials at the expense of 
the City, and also in addition, 88 burials in the Tombs 
of the House of Industry at South Boston. The num- 
ber of burials of the same description in other towns of 
the Commonwealth would be considerable, but less in 
proportion to the population. There can be no doubt 
the supply of subjects would be ample. 

Dissection, by being no longer made a part of the 
sentence of our courts in cases of capital convictions, 
would gradually lose in the public mind that association, 
which now, above all others, makes it odious. And 
above all, exhumation would wholly cease ; there would 
be no need of it — and thus a prolific source of painful 
disquietude, and of injurious excitement would be effec- 
tually closed up in our happy and generally quiet com- 
munity. 

By giving the proposed facility to dissection, we may 
hope too, soon to witness here new improvements in the 
science of Anatomy, which shall redound to the honor 
of our country as well as to the benefit of the human 
race. Although England, France and Germany — by 
the labors of Hunter, Bichat and Boerhaave and their 
many other great anatomists, have done much to pro- 
mote anatomical science — much no doubt remains yet 
to be done ; — and if facilities be afforded for its study, 
we have every reason to believe, that some one of our 
anatomists may in the course of events achieve for him- 
self as enviable a rank in that science, as Franklin held 



78 

in Natural Philosophy and asBowditch now holds in the 
pure Mathematics. The connection between the ca- 
pillary system and the nervous system, for instance, is 
suspected, but not yet demonstrated. What a glorious 
achievement for an American Anatomist to make the 
demonstration ? Descriptive anatomy and comparative 
anatomy open a wide field for the student, provided he 
can have the facilities for cultivating it with success. 

Your Committee cannot close this report better than 
by again calling the serious and earnest attention of the 
Legislature to the intrinsic importance of the subject, 
they have endeavored to illustrate. 

A knowledge of anatomy is necessary to the painter 
and statuary — the Lawyer and Judge — to the theolo- 
gian — what more admirably illustrates the wonder, pow- 
er and goodness of God ? It was the contemplation of 
man, that inspired the Heathen Philosophers with sen- 
timents so noble, as to have led some to suppose that 
they must have borrowed them from the writings of In- 
spiration. We cannot more forcibly present this sub- 
ject to the consideration of the House, than by imagin- 
ing that the human frame was transparent, and that in- 
stead of the mere outward form and features, we were 
permitted to contemplate the whole of our wonderful or- 
ganization — the play of the muscles — the vibrations of 
the nerves — the coursing of the blood — the motions of 
the viscera — the distentions and actions of the brain — 
and in a word, the whole of that nice machinery in vig- 
orous and constant action — the derangement of the 
smallest portion of which is felt throughout the whole 
man. Could any thing be more wonderful ? 

" Astronomy and anatomy" says Fontenelle " are the 
studies which present us with the most striking views of 



79 

the two greatest attributes of the Supreme Being. The 
first of these fills the mind with the idea of his immensi- 
ty, in the largeness, distances and number of the Heav- 
enly Bodies : the last astonishes, with his intelligence 
and art in the variety and delicacy of animal mechan- 
ism." The learned, pious and eloquent Paley re- 
marks, " It has been said that a man cannot lift his 
hand to his head, without finding enough to convince 
him of the existence of a God. And it is well said : for 
he has only to reflect, familiar as this action is, and 
simple as it seems to be, how many things are requisite 
for the performing of it — how many things which we un- 
derstand ; to say nothing of many more, probably, which 
we do not : viz. first a long, hard, strong cylinder to 
give to the arm its firmness and tension, but which be- 
ing rigid and in its substance inflexible, can only turn 
upon joints : secondly, therefore, joints for this purpose ; 
one at the shoulder to raise the arm ; another at the el- 
bow to bend it : these joints continually fed with a soft 
mucilage, to make the parts slide easily on one another, 
and holden together by strong braces to keep them in 
their position ; then, thirdly, strings and wires, that is, 
muscles and tendons, artificially inserted for the purpose 
of drawing the bones in the directions, in which the 
joints allow them to move. Hitherto we seem to un- 
derstand the mechanism pretty well, and understanding 
this, we possess enough for our conclusion : neverthe- 
less, we have hitherto only a machine standing still ; — 
a dead organization — an apparatus. To put the system 
in a state of activity ; to set it at work ; a further pro- 
vision is necessary, viz. a communication with the brain 
by means of nerves. We know the existence of this 
communication, because we can see the communicating 



80 

threads and can trace them to the brain : its necessity 
we also know ; because, if the thread be cut, if the 
communication be intercepted, the muscle becomes 
paralytic ; but beyond this we know little : the organi- 
zation being too minute and subtle for our inspection." 
" To what has been enumerated as officiating in the 
simple act of a man's raising his hand to his head, must 
be added, likewise, all that is necessary and all that 
contributes to the growth, nourishment and sustentation 
of the limb ; the repair of its waste, the preservation of 
its health, such as the circulation of the blood through 
every part of it, its lymphatics, exhalants, absorbents. 
All these share in the result, join in the effect, and how 
all these or any of them came together without a de- 
signing disposing Intelligence, it is impossible to an- 
swer." 

Such is the religious and true philosophy of that stu- 
dy of man, which is now commended to the patronage 
and countenance of an intelligent Legislature. Won- 
derful as is inanimate nature in her works ; in combina- 
tion or in detail, beautiful and sublime as they are — 
they are inferior — far inferior, to the grand master- 
piece of the creation, man. " God created man in his 
own image — in the image of God created he him — male 
and female created he them." " How graceful his 
body ! How sublime the glance of his eye ! How vast 
his reasoning, his inventive and his ruling faculties ! 
Contemplate his exterior : — erect, towering and beau- 
teous. — How does the present but concealed Deity, 
speak in his countenance with a thousand tongues. 
God of perfection ! How supremely, how benevolently 
hast thou displayed thyself in man ! Survey his soul 
beaming, his divine countenance : the thoughtful brow, 



81 

the penetrating eye, the spirit-breathing lips, the deep 
intelligence of the assembled features ! How they all 
conspiring speak ! What harmony ! A single ray in- 
cluding all possible colors ! the picture of the fair, im- 
measurable mind within !" 

It is the study of man, in all his wonderful adaptations 
of cause to effect, of means to ends — the study of this 
noblest work of the Divine Intelligence, and as the ne- 
cessary consequence, new conquests in the realms of 
true science and new discoveries for curing or allevi- 
ating the ills that " flesh is heir to" — that are by 
your committee most respectfully, but earnestly and 
repeatedly commended to the patronage and protection 
of an enlightened Legislature ; and your committee ful- 
ly believe, that whatever provisions on this interesting 
subject the Legislature may adopt, they will receive the 
support and countenance of the intelligent and liberal 
community, whom it is our high privilege to represent. 

And is not an improved and liberalized legislation, in 
favour of anatomical science, due to the high character 
of our constituents for liberality and intelligence. Mas- 
sachusetts has ever been foremost in overcoming preju- 
dice and in pressing forwards in the onward march of 
improvement. The men, who first settled Massachu- 
setts, were far above the religious and political prejudi- 
ces of their age. The men of Massachusetts, in the 
perils of the revolution, were ever foremost in battling 
for the cause of freedom, and in resisting those prejudi- 
ces in favour of the rights of the British Monarch, 
which made some of the best hearts in America quail 
and shrink from an irrevocable " Declaration of Inde- 
pendence." In the constitution of Massachusetts, the 
encouragement of " Arts, Sciences* and all good litera- 
11 



82 

ture" is expressly declared to be a part of the duty of 
the legislature. When therefore, it is apparent, that a 
science, perhaps more deeply than any other, interest- 
ing to every portion of the community, is suffering and 
languishing for the want of a liberal legislation, is not 
the honor of the Commonwealth, as well as the gen- 
eral interests of science, civilization and humanity, con- 
cerned, that the Legislature should promptly interfere, 
to extricate this important branch of human knowledge 
from the trammels and incumbrances, which prejudice 
has placed around and upon it ? 

All of which is respectfully submitted. By order of 
the select committee. 

JOHN BRAZER DAVIS, Chairman. 



ComwoutoeaWj ot JWasaacfjuartte, 



In the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred 
and Thirty-One. 



AN ACT 

More effectually to Protect the Sepulchres of the Dead, 
and to Legalize the Study of Anatomy in certain 
cases. 

1 Sect. 1. BE it enacted by the Senate and House of 

2 Representatives in General Court assembled, and by 
S the authority of the same, That if any person, not be- 

4 ing authorized by the Board of Health, Overseers 

5 of the Poor, or Selectmen in any town of this Com- 

6 monwealtb, or by the Directors of the House of In- 

7 dustry, Board of Health, Overseers of the Poor, or 



84 

8 Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Boston, in said 

9 Commonwealth, shall knowingly or wilfully dig up, 

10 remove or convey away, or aid and assist in digging 

1 1 up, removing or conveying away any Human body, 

12 or the remains thereof, such person or persons so 

13 offending, on conviction of such offence in the Su- 

14 preme Judicial Court of this Commonwealth, shall 

15 be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall be punished 

16 by solitary imprisonment for a term not exceeding 

17 ten days and by confinement afterwards to hard la- 

18 borforaterm not exceeding one year; or shall be 

19 punished by a fine not exceding two thousand dol- 

20 lars to enure to the benefit of the Commonwealth, 

21 and by imprisonment in the common jail for a term 

22 not exceeding two years at the discretion of the 

23 Court, according to the nature and aggravation 

24 of the offence. 

1 Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That if any person 

2 shall be in any way either before or after the fact, 

3 accessary to the commission, by any person or per- 

4 sons of the offence described in the first section of 

5 this Act, such person or persons, shall be adjudged 

6 and taken to be principals, and shall be on convic- 

7 tion in the Court aforesaid, subject to the same pun- 

8 ishments and forfeitures as are in said first section 

9 provided. 

1 Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That from and af- 

2 ter the passing of this Act, it shall be lawful for the 

3 Board of Health, Overseers of the Poor and Se- 

4 lectmen of any town in this Commonwealth and for 

5 the Directors of the House of Industry, Board of 

6 Health, Overseers of the Poor and Mayor and 

7 Aldermen of the City of Boston in said Common- 



85 

8 wealth, to surrender the dead bodies of such persons 

9 as may be required to be buried at the public ex- 

10 pense to any regular physician, duly licensed ac- 

11 cording to the Laws of this Commonwealth, to be 

12 by said physician used for the advancement of ana- 

13 tomical science : Preference being always given to 

14 the Medical Schools, that now are or hereafter may 

15 be established by Law in this Commonwealth, du- 

16 ring such portions of the year as said schools or ei- 

17 ther of them may require subjects for the instruc- 

1 8 tion of Medical Students : Provided always, That 

19 no such dead body shall in any case be so surren- 

20 dered, if within twenty-four hours from the time of 

21 its death, any one or more persons, claiming to be 

22 kin, friend or acquaintance to the deceased, shall 

23 require to have said body inhumed ; but said dead 

24 body shall be inhumed and when so inhumed, any 

25 person, without the authority specified in the first 

26 section of this Act, disinterring the same or being 

27 accessary as is described in the second section of this 

28 Act, to its exhumation, shall be liable to the pun- 

29 ishments and forfeitures in this Act respectively pro- 

30 vided : And provided further, That every physician 

31 so receiving any such dead body, before it be lawful 

32 to deliver him the same, shall in each case give to 

33 the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Boston, or 

34 to the Selectmen of any town of this Common- 

35 wealth, as each case may require, good and sufii- 

36 cient bond or bonds, that each body, by him so re- 

37 ceived, shall be used only for the promotion of ana- 

38 atomical science ; that it shall be used for such pur- 

39 pose only in this Commonwealth and so as in no event 

40 to outrage the public feeling, and that after having 



86 

41 been so used the remains thereof shall be decently 

42 inhumed. 

1 Sect. 4. Be it further enacted ', That from and af- 

2 ter the passing of this Act, it shall be lawful for any 

3 physician duly licensed according to the Laws of 

4 this Commonwealth, or for any Medical Student un- 

5 der the authority of any such physician, to have in 

6 his possession, to use and employ human dead bod- 

7 ies, or the parts thereof, for purposes of anatomical 

8 inquiry or instruction. 

1 Sect. 5. Be it further enacted, That the Act 

2 passed March 2, 1815, entitled " An Act to protect 

3 the Sepulchres of the Dead," and also all other Acts 

4 or parts of Acts, contravening the provisions of this 

5 Act, be and the same hereby are repealed. 



LIST 



DOCUMENTS ACCOMPANYING REPORT 



A 


CIRCULAR TO PHYSICIANS OF MASSACHUSETTS 


B 


a 


u a 


OUT OF MASSACHUSETTS 


1 


LETTER FROM 


E. D. BANGS 


2 


a 


u 


. J. W. DAVIS 


3 


STATEMENT FROM 


BOSTON HEALTH OFFICE 


4 


LETTER FROM . 


. G. C. SHATTUCK 


5 


a 


a 


AMOS BANCROFT 


6 


u 


a 


. JOHN BARTLETT 


7 


u 


u 


AMOS HOLBROOK 


8 


a 


u 


. JOSEPH SAMPSON 


9 


ti 


ti 


JOSHUA FROST 


10 


u 


u 


. H. H. CHILDS 


11 


u 


u 


DANIEL THURBER 


12 


a 


u 


. B. L. OLIVER 


13 


u 


u 


A. L. PIERSON 


14 


H 


it 


. SAMUEL L. MITCHELL 


15 


U 


u 


J. KNIGHT 


16 


u 


u 


. THOMAS SEWALL 


17 


u 


u 


PHILIP S. PHYSICK 


18 


u 


u 


. N. CHAPMAN 


19 


a 


u 


JOSEPH LOVELL 


20 


a 


ti 


. VALENTINE MOTT 


21 


u 


it 


WILLIAM INGALLS 


22 


i. 


tt 


. CHANDLER ROBBINS JR. 


23 


a 


it 


JOHN C. WARREN 



89 



A. 



Boston, December 15, 1830. 
Sir, 

As chairman of a committee of the Massachusetts 
Legislature on the subject of legalizing Anatomy, I 
would respectfully solicit of you information on two 
points. 

1st. Is the study of Anatomy essential to the proper 
understanding and safe practice of Medicine? 

2d. Is the study of Anatomy now encumbered with 
difficulty, and is a change of the Law in relation to it 
necessary, and is the dissection of dead bodies essen- 
tial to this study ? 

An early answer, by mail, to these queries will much 
oblige 

Your obedient Servant, 

JOHN. B. DAVIS. 



n 



90 



B. 



Boston, December 15, 1830. 

Sir, 

As chairman of a committee of the Massachusetts 
Legislature, on the subject of legalizing the study of 
Anatomy, I would respectfully solicit of your experience 
information on the following question : 

Are the study and knowledge of Anatomy essential 
to the understanding and safe practice of Medicine ? 
And is the dissection of dead bodies essential to such 
study and knowledge ? 

An early answer, by mail, to this query will much 

oblige 

Your obedient servant, 

JOHN B. DAVIS. 



91 



( No. 1. ) 



Boston, Secretary's Office, Jan. 5, 1831. 



Sir, 



In compliance with your request, I enclose to you a List of criminals 
who have suffered death, after capital convictions, in this Commonwealth, 
from 1800 to 1830, inclusive. The catalogue embraces the names of two 
individuals who, as appears by the returns of the sheriffs, committed sui- 
cide in prison, on the night before the day appointed for execution. I 
have prepared this list, after an examination of the public records of the 
Council for the period before mentioned, and believe it to be correct. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, 

Your obd't servant, 

EDWARD D. BANGS, 
Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

Executions which have taken place in Massachusetts from January 1, 
J 800, to December 31, 1830, as far as they can be determined from th$ 
Records in the Secretary's Office. 

Crimes. 

For Murder 
Murder 
Rape 
Rape 
Murder 
Murder 
Murder 
Murder 
Rape 
Rape 
Jr. Murder 



Name?. 

Jason Fairbanks 
Ebenezer Mason 
John Battes 
Ephraim Wheeler 
Dominick Daley 
James Halligan 
Joseph Drew 
Ebenezer Ball 
Henry Pyner 
Ezra Hutchinson 
Jonathan Jewett, 



Henry Phillips 
Peter Johnson 
Michael Powers 
Stephen M. Clark 
Michael Martin 
Samuel Clisby 
Gilbert Close 
Samuel Green 



Murder 

Rape 

Murder 

Arson 

Highway Robbery 

Robbery 

Robbery 

Murder 



When Executed. 

Executed Sept. 10, 1800 
" Oct. 7, 1802 

" Nov. 8, 1804 

Feb. 20, 1806 
« June 5, 1806 

" June 5, 1806 

« July 21, 1808 

« Oct. 31, 1811 

« Nov. 5, 1813 

" Nov. 18, 1813 

Committed Suicide in 
Prison, Nov. 10, 1815 
Executed March 13, 1817 
Nov. 25, 1819 
« May 27, 1820 

" May 10, 1821 

Dec. 20, 1821 
March 7, 1822 
March 7, 1822 
April 25, 1823 



92 



Horace Carter 


Rape 


Executed Dec. 8, 1825 


John Hblloran 


Murder 


« March 3, 1826 


Samuel P. Charles 


Murder 


Nov. 22, 1826 


Robert Bush 


Murder 


Committed Suicide in 
Prison, Nov. 14, 1828 


John Boies 


Murder 


Executed July 7, 1829 


John F. Knapp 


Murder 


" Sept. 28, 1830 


Joseph J. Knapp, Jr. 


Murder 


« Dec. 31, 1830 



Sir, 



( No. 2. ) 

District Clerk's Office, Boston, Dec. 24, 1830. 



Agreeably to your request I enclose to you a statement of the Capital 
Executions of Criminals under sentence of the U. States Circuit Court for 
Massachusetts District, from the adoption of the Federal "Constitution in 
1789 to the present time. 

I am very respectfully, 

Your obd't servant, 

JOHN W. DAVIS, 
Clerk of Mass. District Court. 



List of Criminals capitally executed, under sentence of the 
Court J or Massachusetts DistHct.from the adoption of the 
Hon in 1789 to Dec. 24, 1830. 

Names. 



John Baptiste Collins 

Manuel Furtado 
Augustus Poleski 
Samuel Tully 

John Williams 

John P. Rog 
Francis Frederick 
Nils Peterson 
William Holmes 
Thomas Warrington 
Edward Rosewaine 
Perry Anthony 



Crime*. 

J Piracy and Murder ? 
C on the high seas S 

do. 

do. 
Piracy on the high seas 
J Piracy and Murder > 
I on the high seas > 

do. 

do. 

do. 
Murder on the high seas 

do. 

do. 

do. 



U. States Circuit 
Federal Constitu- 

When Executed. 

July 30, 1794 

do. 
do. 
Dec. 10, 1812 

Feb. 18, 1819 

do. 

do. 

do. 
June 15, 1820 

do. 

do. 
Dec. 21, 1824 



93 

Winslow Curtis Murder on the high seas Feb. 1, 1827 

John Duncan White do. Feb. 1, 1827— Committed suicide 

night before the day of Execution 
13 Executions, 
1 Suicide. 

14 



( No. 3. ) 

Statement from the Boston Health Office. 
Died at the House of Industry, and buried in tombs belonging to that 
establishment, from January I, 1830, to December 21, inclusive — 
62 Adults and 26 Children. 
Died and buried at expense of the City within the same time — 
134 Adults and 60 Children. 

S. H. HE WES, 

Sup. Burial Grounds. 



( No. 4. ) 

Staniford Street, December 15, 1830. 
J. B. Davis, Esq. Sir, — Yours of this inst. is now before me. If sum- 
moned to render a reason why the study of Anatomy should be legalized, I 
would reply, that anatomy is to the practice of medicine and surgery, what 
the alphabet is to language. Although certain gifted individuals may speak 
a language eloquently without knowing how either to read or write a single 
letter, still the exception proves the rule, for in this enlightened common- 
wealth precious few are to be found without such knowledge. There have 
been instances of reputation in medicine and surgery without the familiar 
knowledge of anatomy, still the supposed case stands so rare, that as an ex- 
ception it confirms the general rule. Our commonwealth is great and pow- 
erful from the labor and skill of its population. Labor and skill both jeop- 
ardize the life and limb of the operative. Free trade and domestic manu- 
facture in their full course of operation, expose to peril of life and limb, its 
several laborers. Is a nerve punctured, an artery torn, a bone broken or out 
of place, a surgeon skilled in the knowledge of anatomy is essential to the 



safe treatment and chance of recovery. Dr. Nathan Smith, late Professor 
of surgery at Yale College, and previously at Dartmouth, who left to his 
family little else than the odor of his fair fame (and nobody doubts that the 
fame of his good deeds pervades every hamlet in New-England,) was once 
requested to reduce a dislocated hip — his first trial was unsuccessful — he 
then dissected the hip of a subject procured for his lectures, aud with his 
fresh knowledge of the anatomy of the hipjoint, he returned to his patient, 
and readily accomplished his task. A venerable matron in this city in child- 
hood, had the misfortune to suffer a division of the ulnar artery at the wrist 
— in those days anatomy was not cultivated as a liberal pursuit, it being pre- 
viously to the commencement of the splendid career of the late Dr. Warren. 
The wound was plugged up with lint and a compress, and respectable physi- 
cians alternately watched and stanched the bleeding by their fingers — the fair 
sufferer incurred extreme peril of life at the time and experienced a perish- 
ing of the arm, which has rendered it useless for life. Had Anatomy been 
known, the bleeding vessel had been secured, and the usefulness of the limb 
preserved. The study of Anatomy should be legalized, because the good 
of the laborer demands skill in medicine and science in surgery, and nei- 
ther can be obtained without the knowledge of Anatomy, and Anatomy can- 
not be learned without frequent dissections. The poor mutilated sailor, the 
wounded soldier, the lacerated workman in the factoiy, the prostrate build- 
er, in short all sufferers from accident or even disease, implore help from 
the presence of the scientific surgeon and skilful physician. -Laws inflicting 
penalty indiscriminately on dissection are deaf to these cries of humanity. 
Were the bodies of the harlot and the vagrant, permitted by the law to be 
dissected, you would no longer hear of the violation of the sanctuary of the 
grave. The medical student might learn to tune the " harp of a thousand 
strings" from a familiar knowledge of its mechanism acquired from the dis- 
section of those, who had corrupted society while living. As the law now 
stands the physician and surgeon are required to exercise competent skill in 
the treatment of disease and injury at the hazard of reputation and of 
fortune, and at the same time are forbidden under the penalty of fine and 
imprisonment to learn the first rudiments of their humane profession ! 
The Egyptian taskmaster demanded of the Israelite in bondage his com- 
plement of bricks, but furnished no straw for their manufacture. Massachu- 
setts speaks as hard a language to her practitioners of the Healing Art ; bind 
up these wounds and heal these diseases, for both your reputation and your 
fortune are at stake on the issue, but do not dissect a human body to leam 
your art. Of her statute, the bard hearted oppressor takes advantage, he 
drives the houseless vagrant hungry from his door, and when he has perish^- 
ed in the street from cold and hunger, and after he shall have been interred at 
the expense of the town, when the aspiring son of medical inquiry, as he sup- 
posed, had secretly disinterred for the light of anatomical science the unfortu- 
nate wanderer, gripes all at once, when there is to be nothing out of pocket, 



95 

feels a touch of humanity for the corruptible body, and calculates on both a 
harvest of applause, and money for his patriotic zeal. The unfortunate tyro 
in physic is immured in prison, is sentenced to pay a fine to which he is 
unequal, and consequently expiates the offended law by protracted impri- 
sonment to the loss of health and life. The valley of the Connecticut pre- 
sents more than one instance of this unreasonable prejudice and hardened 
cruelty. 

Dear Sir, your obedient servant, 

GEORGE C. SHATTUCK. 



( No. 5. ) 

Groton, Dec. 18, 1830. 
Sir, 

Yours of the 15th is duly received. In answer to your first question, 
" Is the study of Anatomy essential to the proper understanding and safe 
practice of Medicine ?" 

I think, Sir, a Physician may be a good practitioner without having at- 
tended much to Anatomy ; but I think a knowledge of that subject would 
qualify him to be a much more of a philosopher, much more safe, and a 
much better practitioner. 

Question 2nd. " Is the study of Anatomy now encumbered with diffi- 
culty, and is a change of the law in relation to it necessary, and is the dis- 
section of dead bodies essential to this study ? 

I am sensible, Sir, that the subject must be a very delicate and dif- 
ficult one for legislation. But if the members of our Legislature could 
be made sensible of the absolute necessity for every student in the Healing 
Art, to have a thorough knowledge of the structure of the human frame, 
in order to be more safe and sure in his attempts to assist his unfortunate 
fellow creatures, and the utter impossibility to arrive at this knowledge 
without attending to the dissection of dead bodies, I think they would do 
every thing in their power to remove the obstacles now in the way of 
acquiring such a knowledge. I have, sir, been in the practice of Medicine, 
almost forty years. I am now about retiring from the profession : Have 
no self-interest but for the good of society, and from a thorough conviction 
in my mind, I must say yes, to both your questions. 
I am, Sir, with respect and esteem, 

Your friend and well wisher, 

AMOS BANCROFT. 



96 

( No. a. ) 

Roxbury, Dec. 18, 1830. 

Sir* 
In answer to the points on which you request my opinion, viz. whether 

the study of Anatomy, be essential to the proper understanding and safe 
practice of Medicine, whether it is now encumbered with difficulty, and 
a change of the law necessary ; and whether the dissection of dead bodies 
be essential to this study, I would respectfully reply, that no remedy for 
the removal of diseases, whether medical or surgical, can be safely applied 
without a thorough knowledge of the anatomical structure of the different 
organs of the body, all of which, must completely perform their functions, 
to insure good health. I also consider, that an attendance upon the dis- 
section of dead bodies, is the only sure means by which a competent un- 
derstanding of the action of those organs can be obtained. And it is my 
opinion, that a change of the law so far becomes necessary, as to enable 
our young men to obtain the advantages of dissection without a violation 
of it. Yours, with respect, 

JOHN BARTLETT. 



(No. 7.) 

Milton, Dec. 19, 1830. 
Sir, j 

Having received your request by letter, (of date 15th inst.) as Chairman 
of the Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature, on the subject of le- 
galizing Anatomy — in compliance with your request, I do very respectfully 
respond to the queries on those points, with all the candour and sincerity 
that one of the medical profession ought to express, for the welfare of the 
whole community. 

1st. The study of Anatomy, and the ocular demonstration of the same, 
by exhibiting the structure of the human body by anatomical preceptors, 
is so absolutely necessary and indispensable to the medical student, that 
no one can be scientifically, or even duly qualified for a safe practitioner, 
without that advantage ; and particularly for the safe practice of surgery, 
for if a surgical operator is not thoroughly acquainted with the structure 
of the human body, he must be altogether in the dark, as to where he 
plunges the knife, especially in important and internal operations, and be ex- 
posing the patient to be awfully maimed for life, or to sudden death. And 
as there is no way for the student of medicine or surgery, to obtain the 



97 

neeessary qualifications, but only by the advantage of dissection of dead 
human bodies. 

2d. The study of Anatomy, which is the only basis on which the whole 
superstructure of the medical and surgical art rests, is so encumbered or 
impeded at present, for the want of some legal provision, for the benefit of 
such an important purpose, as to cause much embarrassment to the medi- 
cal schools, in preventing their having the necessary requisitions for the 
advantage of their students; and therefore it hasbecome'ardently desirable 
by the medical profession in general in this State, to solicit the patronage 
ot a wise Legislature, for their aid and assistance in devising some legal 
provision adequate to so laudable a design as the prevention and cure of 
the diseases and maladies of the human system. 

I am, Sir, respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

AMOS HOLBROOK 



( No. 8. ) 

Brewster, Dec. 20th, 1830. 
Sir, 
This will serve to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 15th 
inst. by yesterday's mail. 

In reply to your inquiries, permit me to observe, that twenty-five years 
experience in the daily practice of medicine and surgery, has amply demon- 
strated to my mind, that a thorough and minute knowledge of Anatomy is 
essentially and indispensably necessary in order to a judicious investigation 
of disease, and a correct treatment of the same, and that such knowledge 
cann ot be obtained in any other manner than by actual dissection. 

1 refer you to the " Address to the Community" of the Committee of the 
Massachusetts Medical Society of Dec. 1829 — which contains a fair, candid, 
and honest exposition of the whole subject and which meets with the most 
cordial approbation of— Sir, 

Your most obedient and very humble Servant, 

JOSEPH SAMPSON. 



13 



98 



( No. 9. ) 

Springfield, Dee, 21, 1830. 

Sir, 

I received yours of the 15th instant soliciting me to give you information 
on two points relative to the legalizing Anatomy, viz. 1st. Is the study of 
Anatomy essential to the proper understanding and safe practice of Medi- 
cine ? 2d. Is the study of Anatomy now encumbered with difficulty and is 
a change of the law in relation to it necessary, and is the dissection of dead 
bodies essential to this study ? 

I can cordially answer these queries in the affirmative. I consider that a 
knowledge of Anatomy is the ground work of medical education and that, 
no one can be a safe practitioner without it, and that the knowledge of Anat- 
omy cannot be obtained any other way, than by actual dissection of dead 
bodies, and that the dissection of dead bodies is indispensably necessary. 
Notwithstanding the great importance of a knowledge of Anatomy, it is ex- 
tremely difficult to obtain subjects for dissection ; it is not only disgraceful 
in public opinion, but it is liable to heavy fines and imprisonment ; therefore 
it appears to be necessary, to make some change in the present state of our 
laws in relation to it, which I think can be done without injury to the dead 
or the living. Yours, respectfully, 

JOSHUA FROST. 



( No. 10. } 

Pittsfield, Dec. 22, 1880. 
Dear Sir, 
In reply to your favor, I have the honor to state. 1st. The study of anat- 
omy lies at the foundation of all true medical science, and all scientific prac- 
tice. The truth of this declaration is so obvious, that any argument, to 
support it, seems superfluous — all correct physiology is based on anatomy, 
and a knowledge of physiology is indispensable to a knowledge of patholo- 
gy — any other mode of teaching medical science and its practical use, is 
unscientific and empirical. 2d. It is only by actual dissection that the study 
of anatomy can be prosecuted with any tolerable success ; the necessary accu- 
racy and familiarity of knowledge with the various parts of the human sys- 



99 

tem is only attainable by actual dissection. To the dissection of dead 
bodies, surgery is principally indebted for its present high state of improve- 
ment — without a minute knowledge of anatomy, the slightest surgical ope- 
ration would be hazardous to the patient — without the opportunity of dis- 
section a student would be unable to pass such an examination, in medicine, 
as the laws of this State require in order to authorize him to enter on the 
duties of the profession. 

Notwithstanding the known difficulties attending the supply of the dis- 
secting table, often even at the hazard of life, so essential is the dissec- 
tion of dead bodies considered by the faculty, that no student, thinks of pros- 
ecuting the study of medicine without enjoying those advantages, which ac- 
tual dissection afford. The facilities for dissection, which the government 
of France have given, have made Paris the emporium of medical science — 
and in consequence of their greater privileges, more improvements have 
been made in the French schools, than in those of any other country. I 
know of no subject of deeper interest to the State of Massachusetts, than 
the one on which, I am happy to learn, you are deputed by the Legislature 
to report — not only the faculty but the public are most deeply concerned ; — 
legalize the study of anatomy, by affording facilities for dissection — and you 
exalt the reputation of the State, advance its clearest interests and confer the 
richest blessings on the community. Yours, &c 

H. H. CHILDS. 



(No. 11.) 

Mendon, Dec. 25, 1830. 
Sir, 

Yours of the 15th inst. soliciting information on the subject of legalizing 
Anatomy was duly received, and after maturely considering the advan- 
tages and disadvantages, which would result to the community, from a 
change of the present existing law as it regards that subject, I feel it my 
duty to make the following reply to your inquiries. 

1st. In my opinion the study of Anatomy, is essential to the proper un- 
derstanding and safe practice of medicine. 

2nd. I view the study of Anatomy to be now encumbered with difficulty, 
and a change of the law in relation to it is necessary, and that the dissec- 
tion of dead bodies is essential to this study. 

I have reason to believe, that the greater part of those who received 
their medical education in this Commonwealth, at the time I commenced 
the study, viz. about the year 1784, have often had cause to regret that at 



100 

that time, very few had opportunity of attending any medical school, or re- 
ceiving the henefit of lectures on the science of anatomy and physiology. 
The medical school connected with Harvard University was then in its in- 
fancy : and indeed, in the section of the country where I then resided, I 
presume it was not generally known, that there was such an Institution in 
N. England. The knowledge of Anatomy which we derive from the best 
written|treatises on the subject, illustrated with plates, must always remain 
imperfect. And although it may be doubted whether we shall ever be able 
to acquire a perfect knowledge of our complicated system, from the dis- 
section of dead bodies and the ablest demonstrations, yet we are fully per- 
suaded, that the knowledge we obtain from attending such dissections, 
contributes more to our understanding the structure, connection and sym- 
pathy of the various parts of this machine, which is "fearfully and won- 
derfully made," than we can gain from any other source : and the impres- 
sions made on our senses at the time, will be of long duration, and I think 
can never be obliterated. 

How could the immortal Harvey, who made the important discovery of 
the circulation of the blood, which had been sought for in vain by the an- 
cients, have accomplished a work of such magnitude, and of such univer- 
sal benefit to the civilized world, without the advantages of dissections of, 
not only dead but of living animals? 

Nor does the Anatomist, who has the comfort and preservation of the 
health of his fellow mortals in view, rest satisfied with the discoveries that 
have hitherto been made, — from what he has seen accomplished by the in- 
dustry and perseverance of others, he is stimulated to pursue his research- 
es and inquiries, in order to perfect a knowledge of that science, in which 
we all feel so deeply interested. 

1 most sincerely hope sir, that your influence will be exerted in enacting 
a law, that shall give further facility to anatomical investigations. 
With much respect, I am Sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

DANIEL THURBER. 



101 



{ No. 12. ) 



Salem, Dec. 28, 1830. 



Sir, 

My having been indisposed lately by disease, must be my apology for 
this late reply to your favor of the 15th inst. 

You have requested my opinion on the following points ; 1st. Is the 
study of anatomy essential to the proper understanding and safe practice 
of medicine. 

2d. Is the study of anatomy now encumbered with difficulty, and is a 
change of the law in relation to it necessary, and is the dissection of dead 
bodies essential to this study ? 

1st. A general knowledge of anatomy is necessary to the physician to 
enable him to comprehend what has been written on the subject of diseas- 
es, and consequently to enable him to practice with safety to his patients. 
But to tire surgeon, a minute knowledge of anatomy is indispensable to 
him, and the safety of his patients. Now this is only attainable by dissec- 
tions of dead bodies: and as in the country both professions are usually 
united in the same person, a like qualification becomes necessary to both. 
Asa minute knowledge of anatomy is unattainable but by the dissection 
of dead bodies, some provision I think should be made by the Laws for 
the attainment of this object. And this would have the good effect of pre- 
venting the violation of the graves of the dead, which is so revolting to the 
friends and relations of the dead ; as well as serve to do away the tempta- 
tion to murder, which has disgraced some of the Capitals of Europe. 

I am not sufficiently acquainted with the laws relating to the above sub- 
ject, to say how far they tend to discourage anatomical studies, or what 
modification of them would be proper. I have no doubt, but that the in- 
terest of society will be promoted, by all the means that shall facilitate the 
acquisition of medical and anatomical science. 

I am, sir, with respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

B. LYNDE OLIVER. 



lot 

( No. 13. 



Salem, Dec. 28th, 1830. 



Sir, 
I have the honor to ackowledge the recceipt of a communication from 
you as the chairman of the committee of the Legislature, on the subject of 
Anatomy, and to state in reply : 

1. It is the unanimous opinion of all medical practitioners, and is not con- 
tradicted by any well informed person out of the profession, that a knowledge 
of anatomy is the indispensible foundation of a medical and surgical education. 

2. And it is equally agreed that there can be no effectual way of acquiring 
a knowledge of anatomy but by inspecting, many times over, the parts of the 
human body as they are exhibited by dissection. Plates and models are 
wholly inadequate to convey an idea of the relative sizes, proportions, distan- 
ces, hardness, softness, colour, and other qualities of the parts of the body 
essential to be understood by the anatomist. The medical society of this 
State, in their address to the community on this subject, have supported these 
opinions by facts and arguments, which might be, if necessary, still farther 
extended. Cases are there given, of lives lost for want of a competent knowl- 
edge of anatomy in medical practitioners. The following cases are inserted 
In the American Journal of Medical Science for May, 1830, by Dr. Horner, 
of Philadelphia, a distinguished surgeon and anatomist " During the bril- 
liant campaign of our army in 1814, on the Niagara frontier, many cases of 
severe wounds required surgical operations. A surgeon occupying a distin- 
guished station through his commission, but certainly not through any profes- 
sional qualification, was a chief operator. We saw this person, in an ampu- 
tation of the thigh, fail to cut through the great sciatic nerve. After the bone 
was sawed through, the limb still hung on by this nerve. Ignorant of its na- 
ture, he made a plunge at it with his saw ! The screams of the poor soldier 
attested the concentrated agony of a thousand operations, until the operator 
was implored by an assistant to take a knife, and divide the mangled nerve." 
A captive officer of the enemy likewise, fell a victim to the want of scientific 
skill of the same ignorant individual, who was unable to perform the operation 
of tying the main artery of the arm, which a person tolerably acquainted with 
Anatomy can readily do, and suffered the wounded man to die from hemorr- 
hage and inflammation. Such instances might be indefinitely multiplied, and 
ignorance of Anatomy leads to as fatal results in medical as in surgical prac- 
tice. 

3. The laws are now, certainly, prohibitory of dissection, since they punish 
the taking of a dead body, under any circumstances, with little less severity 
than felony. Let me ask you, sir, if you had a son about to commence the 
study of physic, would you not be startled to know he could not acquire 
the very elements of his profession in this Commonwealth, without violating 
the laws, and exposing himself to heavy fine and long imprisonment? The 



103 

operation of the present laws, likewise, consigns the actual procurement of 
bodies to desperate and unprincipled men, who alone are willing to take the 
risks attending the occupation, and who are thus preparing themselves to be- 
come the terror of peaceable and virtuous citizens. It must of necessity be 
the case, that every school of anatomy in the country, must depend on such 
men for their supply of subjects. In other countries these men have com- 
mitted murders which chill the blood to mention ; — why may they not do the 
same in this ? In the present order of things, private dissection by individual 
practitioners is out of the question. No respectable man will risk an exposure^ 
4. The remedy of the evil has always appeared to me to be a direct, and 
manful appeal to the legislature to take the matter up as their business and that 
of their constituents, considering the medical profession no farther interested 
than other citizens. The legislature has established medical schools, prescrib- 
ed the education of medical practitioners, and made practical anatomy a part 
of that education, and it becomes imperative upon them not to prohibit the 
only means by which their own laws can be complied with. I believe the 
public are prepared for a law to legalize Anatomy ; and if the provisions of it 
are only permissive and not mandatory, and the whole power of giving up, or 
of refusing to give up, any subject, be left in the hands of the municipal authori- 
ties, the most scrupulous must be satisfied. For some papers relative to pe- 
titioning and to enactments on this subject, I beg leave to refer you to Prof. 
J. C. Warren, the Chairman of the Committee of the Massachusetts Medical 
Society, on Anatomy. 

I have the honor to be, 

Your most ob't servant, 

A. L. PEIRSON. 



( No. 14. 



Mic-York, Dec. 19, 1830. 



Sir, 

Your letter of the 15th instant, is now before me. In it you ask, in your 
capacity of Chairman to a Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature, my 
opinion on the study and knowledge of anatomy, more especially whether 
they are essential to the understanding and safe practice of medicine. 

On these points it may be observed, that a knowledge of the structure of 
the stomach is not essential to the operation of an emetic : nor of the rest of 
the alimentary canal to the efficacy of a cathartic. Venesection was per- 
formed centuries before the circulation of the blood was known. And in- 
fants and suckling animals of all sorts, take milk from the teat without any 
acquaintanco with the vacuum or the gullet. 



104 

Still the same accidents that befal man in the field of labour and the field 
of battle, ought to lead him to learn his organization and economy. Hemorr- 
hages, abscesses and ulcers require patient and minute investigation. But 
when fractures, dislocations, wounds, burns, scalds, and other accidents, are 
taken into consideration, the importance of studying the human frame 
becomes more impressively evident. As also do the operations of surgery 
and the occurrences of midwifery. 

I have, for these and other considerations, no doubt of the fundamental 
importance of anatomical knowledge to a physician and surgeon. 

You next ask whether the dissection of dead bodies is essential to the 
study and knowledge ? Inasmuch as correct, information cannot be pro- 
cured without such exercise, I have no hesitation in observing on it, that 
it ought to be discreetly and prudently done, for the purpose of making 
able professional men. 

I have the honor to be— respectfully, yours, 

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. » 



( No. 15. ) 

A 6w>- Haven, Dec. 20, 1830. 
Sir, 
I received your letter of the 15ti mst. a few days since, requesting an an- 
swer to the following questions. " Are the study and knowledge of anatomy, 
essential to the understanding and safe practice of medicine ? Is not the 
dissection of the dead body essential to this study and knowledge ?" A 
strong and decided affirmative answer to both these questions, is the only one, 
which would probably be given by any intelligent member of the medical 
profession. This answer would be seen by every one, whether of the pro- 
fession or not, to be correct, if a general direction were given to the inqui- 
ries, instead of being turned to medicine and anatomy ; concerning which 
subjects, there seems to be in the minds of many a suspicion of mystery, 
and of something not to be judged of by the ordinary rules of common 
sense. That a man should be accurately acquainted with the structure, organi- 
zation and functions of those bodies with which he is conversant in the or- 
dinary business of life, and that this acquaintance can be obtained best, if 
not solely, by inspecting them, are principles so obvious as scarcely to be 
susceptible of proof. At the same time, I am aware that notions contradic- 
tory to the opinion above expressed in relation to the necessity of the study 
of anatomy to the physician, are extensively prevalent, connected with, if 
not arising out of, the strong feelings which prevail concerning the dissection 



105 

of the human body. This subject has been so thoroughly examined in 
all its bearings, within a few years past, and the result of these examina- 
tions so ably brought forward in publications which are doubtless in the 
bands of the Committee of which you are a member, as to render any de- 
tailed remarks from me a trespass upon your time. There is one topic 
however, which I will take the liberty to suggest, as I have not seen it men- 
tioned in any of the publications above alluded to, which affords a strong 
reason for the cultivation of anatomy by dissection on the part of the stu- 
dents of medicine of the present day. 

Anatomical investigations concerning the causes, seat and nature of dis- 
eases, have been assiduously and successfully followed for many years past- 
The result of these investigations has thrown much light upon the nature 
and mode of treatment of important diseases. The facts which have been 
discovered, are incorporated with the medical learning of the day, and upon 
them much of the reasoning upon medical subjects is founded. Without a 
knowledge of anatomy, the student of medicine will be unable, either to 
understand or duly appreciate, either the facts or the reasoning founded 
upon them, which he will meet with, in every modern medical book which 
is put into his hands. This subject might be enlarged upon and its im- 
portance confirmed, by a reference to particulars. It will however be suf- 
ficient, I presume, to have suggested it for your consideration. 

Trusting that the Committee of which you are a member will devise 
some method, and your legislature, in their wisdom adopt it, which will free 
physicians from the embarrassments under which they now labor, in having 
placed before them the choice, either to remain ignorant of what they 
deem essential to the safe and honorable practice of their profession, or 
in obtaining it, to violate the law of the land, I cannot but express the opin- 
ion, that in so doing, a greater favor will be conferred upon community, so 
far as the advancement of medical science is important to them, than can 
otherwise be bestowed. 

Very Respectfully, 

Your obedient Servant, 

J. KNIGHT, 
Professor of Anatomy in Yale College. 



14 



106 

( No, 16. ) 
Washington City, D. C. December 20, 1830. 

Sir, 
In reply to your interrogatories — " Are the study and knowledge of Ana- 

omy essential to the understanding and safe practice of medicine, and is 

not the dissection of dead bodies essential to this study and knowledge?" 

I answer first that the study and knowledge of Anatomy are not only es- 
sentia], but indispensable to the safe practice of medicine ; and any one who 
attempts the Healing Art without this knowledge, can have no correct idea 
of the seat and nature of disease and the operation of remedies, and must 
daily see his patients, falling victims to his ignorance. 

Second, I answer that there is no other source from which knowledge of 
Anatomy can be acquired, but that of dissecting dead bodies. 

I can add from experience and observation, that just in proportion to the 
acquisition of Anatomical knowledge and consequently in proportion to the 
facilities of acquiring that knowledge by dissection, will be the skill and re- 
spectability of the medical profession. The truth of this position is estab- 
lished by the experience of every age, and every country. 

Very respectfully yours, 

THOMAS SE WALL. 



( No. 17. ) 

Philadelphia, Dec. 20, 1830. 
Sir, 
I will with pleasure answer the two questions, you have done me the 
honor to propose in your letter dated the 16th instant. 

Question 1st. "Are the study and knowledge of Anatomy essential to 
the understanding and safe practice of medicine ? 

Answer — An accurate knowledge of Anatomy is in my opinion essential 
to the understanding and safe practice of medicine. 

Question 2d. " Is the dissection of dead bodies essential to such study 
and knowledge ?" 

Answer — The dissection of dead human bodies is essential to such 
study and knowledge. 

With great respect, I am, Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

PHILIP S. PHYS1CK. 



107 



( No. 18. ) 

University of Pennsylvania, Dec. 21. 
Sir, 
No medical man I presume, can be found, who would deny, that the 
study and knowledge of anatomy are essential for the understanding and 
safe practice of medicine, or that the dissection of dead bodies, is essen- 
tial to such study and knowledge. The whole medical profession, without 
a solitary exception, I believe, are unanimous on this point. As impossi- 
ble were it, to become acquainted with the details of a complicated piece 
of machinery by any written description, or system of oral instruction, as 
to learn by either or both of these modes, the intimate structure of the ani- 
mal frame. Demonstration, minute and repeated, is required in each case, 
to the comprehension of the object; though far more so, in relation to the 
latter, from the infinitely greater intricacy of the subject. The sine qua 
non, to the surgeon, a thorough familiarity with anatomy, cannot be dis- 
pensed with, in any province of technical medicine. Deficient in this res- 
pect, medicine, instead of a definite and useful science, degenerates into 
mere quackery, dark, confused, and destructive. As evidence of the im- 
portance we attach to anatomy in this school, it is enjoined on the candi- 
date for graduation, to attend two complete courses of lectures on it, and 
to actually dissect and diligently, during the same period. Let any one go 
into practice without a competent knowledge of the human structure, and 
he will very soon be traced along his course by the dreadful mortality 
which he would inflict. 

I have the honor to be, 

Sir, most re?pectful!y, 

N. CHAPMAN. 



108 

( No. 19. ) 

Surgeon General's Office, Dec. 22, 1830. 
Sir, 
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 
15th inst. The subject referred to has been so amply and ably discussed of 
late, both in this country and in England, that I am not aware of any thing 
that can be added to the statements and arguments already before the public. 
The history of medicine in every age and country so clearly proves the af- 
firmative of both the propositions submitted, that individual opinion can at 
this period scarcely affect the question. From the days of the Father of Med- 
icine, who commenced the study of Anatomy on the scattered bones of a 
grave yard, to the present time, when all the professional talent of England 
cannot compete with the anatomical facilities of the Continent, and the de- 
sertion of her schools from this cause alone, has been a subject of serious Par- 
liamentary debate, — an accurate and minute knowledge of Anatomy has not 
only laid the foundation of individual professional eminence, but the improve- 
ment and progress of the profession itself has been in proportion to the assi- 
duity, with which this elementary branch of" it has been prosecuted. The 
petitions of both surgeons and physicians to Parliament, the report of their 
committee, and the bill which passed one branch of that body, neither make, 
nor admit of, any question on this point ; the only difficulty of legalizing dis- 
section was found in the details of the provision intended to be made. In- 
deed, the simple fact that medical students are compelled to resort to those 
schools which afford the necessary facilities for dissection, at whatever incon- 
venience, labour and expense, that they may have even a chance for compe- 
tition in their profession, is conclusive proof that this knowledge is essential 
to qualify them for it. There is however a special cause for the attention 
which this subject has recently excited, to which I beg leave to allude, as it 
must soon compel every medical student either to become a proficient in 
practical anatomy, or to abandon all hope of even mediocrity in his profes- 
sion. Formerly this study was considered by many as essential to surgeons 
alone ; for in the absence of correct anatomical and physiological knowledge, 
pathology or the theory of physic was made to consist in certain fanciful dog- 
mas of some eminent teacher of the day ; so that the student had only to make 
himself master of the fabulous text book of his time, and to procure a few 
acids and alkalis, tonics and antispasmodics, according to the prevailing the- 
ory, and he was at once aufait in his profession. But of late years the theo 
ries of the physicians have been made in a great measure to yield to the facts 
of the anatomist and physiologist, who have discovered that diseases have a 
local habitation as well as a name ; so that unless the student now have a 
competent and practical knowledge of the various tissues and organs; their 
nature, position and connections, the productions of the day will be as sealed 
books to him ; and in a few years his medical library, for all useful purposes, 



109 

may as well be in Arabic as in his vernacular tongue. It is this radical, im- 
portant and progressive improvement in Pathology, which is believed to be 
the true cause of the difficulties in the English Schools ; it having rendered 
the study of Anatomy as essential to the physician as the surgeon, and 
young practitioners finding that without it they can have no chance of ad- 
vancement in their profession. 

There is one point strongly urged in England, which cannot fail to have 
its full weight with the constituted authorities of this country, as well as with 
the public. It is this : — that the young practitioner must and will acquire 
what degree of knowledge he may, at the expense of the living, if he be not 
well grounded in his profession by the dissection of the dead. The scruples 
of friends to post mortem examinations are for the most part overcome by the 
consideration that " others may be benefitted by the information thus obtain- 
ed." How sad the reflection that the dissecting room might, perhaps cer- 
tainly would have given the physician the identical information, now obtained 
at the expense of his patient's life ; and yet that such things do occur cannot 
admit of a question. In Europe an extensive field for this barbarous mode 
of instruction is furnished by a mass of vagrant paupers, who have scarce a 
social tie to life ; — but in this country the young practitioner commences in 
the larger cities generally, in a sparse population always, — among fathers, 
mothers, sisters and brothers, who while they permit their prejudices to de- 
prive the student of the necessary means of instruction, must be content to 
sacrifice their dearest connections on the altar of ignorance and obstinacy. 

Personal observation and experience in the public service have rendered 
this a subject of deep interest. In private life the young physician may ordi- 
narily obtain advice in the important cases that fall in his way, and in a scat- 
tered practice the effect of his deficiencies may pass unnoticed ; but a public 
commission, especially in active service, throws him at once on his own re- 
sources, perhaps without even the aid of a reference to his books ; and places 
under his sole control the crowded wards of a Hospital, where the result of 
his practice must at once be seen and felt, Under these circumstances, I 
have repeatedly witnessed the inestimable value of a medical education, com- 
menced, continued and ended in the dissecting room. At one period I should 
have preferred the assistance and advice of a recent pupil of a late distin- 
guished lecturer on Anatomy, to that of most, perhaps of all, those with whom 
I was at that time associated; and his success in private life has shown that 
the confidence would not have been misplaced; while numbers who entered 
the service " for improvement in practice," left it but little, if any, wiser for 
advantages, which a defective education rendered it impossible for them to 
appreciate or improve. 

Very Respectfully 

Your ob't serv't, 

JOS. LOVELL, M. D. 

Surgeon General U. S. «#, 



no 

( No. 20. ) 

New-York, Dec. 25, 1830. 

Sir, 
It gives me great pleasure to reply to your letter of the 15th inst., with an 
ardent hope that your Legislature will set a noble example to the other States, 
to facilitate the acquisition of sound anatomical knowledge, the only sure 
foundation of all that is truly valuable in Medicine, and without which, Sur- 
gery is truly murderous. 

I apprehend it is not your wish to receive a long and detailed essay in an- 
swer to the two questions you propose. 

1st, The study and knowledge of Anatomy is indispensably necessary to 
the practice of Medicine safely. 

2d. And this knowledge cannot possibly be obtained in any other way, 
than by the frequent examination and dissection of dead bodies. 
Yours very respectfully, 

VALENTINE MOTT. 



( No. 21. ) 

Dear Sir, 

In reply to your note in relation to the subject of legalizing Anatomy, per- 
mit me respectfully to state, it is my decided opinion, that " the study of Ana- 
tomy is essential to the proper understanding and safe practice of medicine." 

The living body is composed of various apparatus, organs and tissues, 
whose perfect action is necessary to constitute health ; but if, from any cause, 
the regular performance of their functions be disturbed, disease ensues. 
Every deviation from health is indicated by a train of symptoms, which with- 
out an intimate acquaintance with Anatomy cannot be understood nor satis- 
factorily explained. 

This position may be briefly illustrated by adverting to the seat of a few 
diseases of the apparatus, with which respiration is furnished. The parts 
that contribute, and indeed are essential, to this important function, are the 
lungs ; the bones of the chest ; the respiratory muscles and the nerves with 
which they are supplied with sensorial power. Pain in the side and difficulty 
of breathing, which are complaints of frequent occurrence, and often require 
medical aid, may arise from a morbid affection of the intercostal nerves, the 
intercostal muscles, the ribs, the pleura or the substance of the lungs, pro- 
ducing tic douloureux, rheumatism, necrosis, pleurisy or lung fever. 

Though these diseases in the course of their development are accompani- 



Ill 

ed with pain in the side and difficulty of respiration, owing to the diversity 
in the organization of the parts on which each disease severally depends, the 
same remedy, which may procure relief in one case, may in another prove 
injurious. For instance, blood-letting, the usual remedy resorted to with 
the view of mitigating the severity of these symptoms, when judiciously em- 
ployed, is attended with decided advantage in pleurisy and necrosis ; but in 
the lung fever and rheumatism, its utility is exceedingly doubtful, and in 
tic douloureux it usually affords little or no benefit and sometimes it aggra- 
vates the pain and difficulty of breathing to an alarming degree. Hence 
the " necessity of acquiring the faculty of accurately discriminating diseases, 
whose prominent and urgent symptoms are nearly allied." For this purpose 
frequent dissections are indispensable ; without the actual inspection of the 
constituent parts of the body, the seat and nature of diseases cannot be 
clearly discerned nor distinguished. 

Anatomical drawings, models in wax and plaster, injected preparations, or 
other imperfect auxiliaries may be substituted, but upon such devices no re- 
liance ought to be placed ; as they too often confuse the student, and make 
false impressions of the things they are designed to represent. Even the 
most faithful and lucid descriptions, found in works on Anatomy, are incapa- 
ble of affording a clear and just idea of the diversified organs of the human 
frame. Books and other auxiliaries may, indeed, greatly facilitate the study 
of Anatomy; and no means of information should be neglected, that may 
shed light on a subject so intricate and complex. 

The science of carpentry may be described in books with mathematical 
precision ; but it would be wholly incompetent, hi this way, to convey to the 
understanding the practical knowledge requisite to repair an edifice. To 
become a proficient in practical carpentry, a man must not only make him- 
self acquainted with the different materials of the building, but serve a long 
apprenticeship in taking apart and putting together the various pieces and 
studying their connections. If much time and study be necessarily consum- 
ed in becoming practically conversant with this branch of mechanics, how 
much more diligence and labor ought the student to devote in ascertaining 
the structure, form, and situation of the constituent parts of a fabric, whose 
exquisite and complicated mechanism is not surpassed in nature or art, 
before he can become qualified to practise medicine with reputation and 
success ? 

Your next question involves three propositions. The difficulty attending 
the study of anatomy, the necessity of a change of the law in relation to it ; 
and if the dissection of dead bodies be essential to a correct understanding of 
this branch of medical science. 

With regard to the first proposition, the study of Anatomy is encumbered 
with great difficulty, arising from the laws virtually prohibiting dissections ; 
but the committee may be assured no legal obstacle, however great, can be 
opposed to the disinterment of bodies, but what enterprise and a thirst of 



112 

knowledge will overcome. On this subject, my experience has been by no 
means inconsiderable ; and it is well known, the ingenuity of the plans for 
procuring subjects, the boldness with which they are executed, and the reck- 
lessness of consequences are such, as to appal the discreet, and cause in 
those who are concerned for the character and welfare of the student, the ho- 
nor of the profession, and the tranquillity of the community, extreme anxie- 
ty. To every reflecting mind, it must be a subject of deep regret, that 
those who pursue the study of Anatomy, as the only sure means of rising to 
eminence, must not only render themselves liable to public opinion, but 
subject themselves to the penalty of that part of the criminal code " made 
and provided" against the exhumation of the dead, or remain ignorant of its 
very rudiments. 

2d. The present law has proved to be an ineffectual barrier to the accom- 
plishment of what the student justly considers to be indispensable to the 
acquisition of a competent knowledge of his profession, and what, he fan- 
cies, he may be justified in claiming as a right. The violation of a law, so 
far as it respects example, has a demoralizing influence. A law, therefore, 
making that a crime, the commission of which does not infringe the princi- 
ples of morality or contravene the soundest maxims of jurisprudence, is in 
itself defective, and its tendency pernicious. Such " a change" therefore, 
" in the law is required," as may not be incompatible with rectitude and the 
good of society, and, at the same time, grant to the faculty every necessary 
facility of becoming masters of medical science. 

3d. That no one can arrive at the summit of his profession without the 
frequent " dissection of dead bodies" may be satisfactorily inferred from the 
biography of John Hunter, who, in the latter part of the last century, shone 
as a practitioner of medicine, with unrivalled lustre. This illustrious char- 
acter, by his ardent devotion to the study of anatomy, and by perseverance 
and indefatigable industry in the cultivation of this science, not only rose to 
the highest eminence, but by profound physiological and pathological re- 
searches, the result of his anatomical labors, has paved the way for those 
brilliant and successful advances in medicine, that at the present time give to 
the practice of physic a precision and stability, unknown to former periods. 
Nothing, perhaps, can place the importance of the study of Anatomy in a 
stronger light than the fact, that this accomplished practitioner owed his celeb- 
rity and usefulness almost exclusively to his familiar acquaintance with this 
department of medical science, obtained by frequent and numerous dissec- 
tions of dead bodies. 

With great respect, 

WILLIAM INGALLS. 



113 



.( No. al ) 



Boston, January 1831. 



Dear Sir, 

I owe you an apology for delaying so long, a reply to your polite note, 
in which you request of me some examples, in which the dissection of the 
human body is indispensable in the practice of our profession. This delay 
has been occasioned by the conviction, that, from other sources, you would 
derive more signal examples of this necessity, than have fallen under my 
own observation. I do not mean, by this remark, that a minute knowledge 
of anatomy is, in the least degree, less important in the practice of Physic, 
than it is in that of Surgery, (which I do not profess ;) but simply that its im- 
portance cannot be so generally seen and appreciated in ihe treatment of in- 
ternal diseases,as it is where life evidently and immediately depends on the 
skilful use of the cautery or knife. Still, there is no fact better established, or 
more frequently illustrated to the scientific observer, than that, in the former 
department of the healing art, as in the latter, not a step can betaken with- 
out peril to the patient, until the practitioner has made himself most inti- 
mately acquainted with the minute structure of the machine he undertakes 
to repair. 

There is one example, however, which I will attempt to offer you, in il- 
lustration of the advantage of human dissection to the medical practition- 
er ; and this 1 have selected because it can be easily understood, and be- 
cause, being the fruit of very recent investigations, it shows that anatomy 
is still giving success to our labors, and that we have yet much to hope from 
its future cultivation. 

The example I allude to, is found in the history of a class of diseases, 
termed neuralgic, — diseases which consist in a disordered condition of 
some of the nerves, with which every portion of the body is liberally sup- 
plied, and which are the conductors and receptacles of all sensation. 

Affections of the nerves are usually attended by severe pain, and have 
always resisted with peculiar obstinacy, the most active means which have 
been adopted for their relief. As a familiar example, I will mention the 
common tic-douloureux, which is a specimen of both the severity and ob- 
stinacy of diseases of this class. 

Within a few months only, Physicians have been led to a new and phi- 
losophical method of treating complaints of this description ; a method 
which is attended, in a great majority of cases, by immediate and perma- 
nent relief, and which could not, in the nature of things, have been found 

15 



114 



out, but by the patient dissections of the anatomist. The nervous cords of 
the parts about the head, the chest, the abdomen, and the upper and lower 
extremities, have been traced to the spinal marrow, from which they come 
out like branches from the trunk of a tree ; and the neuralgic affections of 
all these parts of the body are now found to yield to remedies applied to 
the back, near the origin of the nerves of the part affected, after every 
species of application to the direct seat of pain had proved wholly una- 
vailing. 

It must be perceived by every one who looks at this subject, that without 
the dissections of the anatomist, no philosophy could have taught us to ap- 
ply a blister to the back for the relief of a tormenting pain in the knee, or 
to the neck for a like affection of the scalp, the elbow or the wrist. But 
for these dissections, Physicians might have gone on in such cases, mak- 
ing repeated and severe, but ineffectual applications to the immediate 
seat of pain, till the number of instances, already great, might have become 
fearfully increased, in which withered and useless limbs, broken down 
spirits, and worn out constitutions, have resulted from the long continu- 
ance of such painful maladies. These dissections must be minute ; for the 
nervous filaments which supply different parts, are given off from differ- 
ent portions of the spinal marrow, and the remedy, to be successful, should 
be applied over the immediate origin of the particular nerves which go to 
the part, in which pain is experienced. 

The nerves, supplying the most important internal organs, have also 
been traced to their origin in certain large masses of nervous matter, and 
thus has dissections also led to an equally enlightened method of treating 
some of the most painful and distressing affections of these organs. 

I hope, my dear sir, that I have made myself understood ; but it is no 
easy thing to present these subjects to those out of the profession, with any 
approach to their full and proper force. Cases are multiplying daily, in 
confirmation of the facts above stated, and they seem to me to illustrate in 
a clear light, the reasonableness of the opinion, that we should be allowed 
to pursue that species of investigation which is the true basis of all we have 
ever done for the relief of physical sufferings, and to which we look for di- 
rection in all our attempts to extend the usefulness of the medical profes- 
sion. 

Very respectfully and truly, 

Your obedient friend and servant, 

CHANDLER ROBBINS, Jr. 



115 



( No. 23. ) 

Boston, Jan. 1, 1831. 
Dear Sir, 

The questions on which you have done me the honor to consult me, 
Whether anatomy is necessary to the knowledge of medicine and surgery, 
and whether the existing laws of our Commonwealth impede the study of 
this science, are of very great importance to the public, and I shall be very 
glad to contribute every information in my power to dispel the obscurity 
and nrystery which have hitherto hung over them. We live in a time 
when prejudice and superstition must yield to the spirit of the age. Slowly 
and reluctantly they may drag their ill-defined forms from the light, but it is 
impossible they can long withstand the scrutinizing eye of free and resolute 
inquiry. 

There seems to be one question preliminary in its nature to those above 
stated, viz. Whether the sciences of surgery and medicine are useful and 
necessaiy to the public good. Although such a question may seem strange, 
yet it is really more susceptible of dispute than either of the others. It has 
been asserted on some high and solemn occasions, that empirics often suc- 
ceed in effecting cures where the best instructed physicians have failed, and 
hence it has been hastily inferred that all the study and learning, to which 
the medical profession are compelled, is an unnecessary labor and a waste of 
time. On examining the grounds of such opinions they will be found to 
rest on a few insulated cases, that form exceptions to the general course and 
order of things. One, who never shot an arrow, might accidentally have 
struck the apple from the head of the son of William Tell, but the chances 
in such a case would be nine to one against such an occurrence. So it is 
in medicine and surgery. An ignorant man may sometimes be successful, 
and when this happens, it very naturally excites surprise, and leads the 
credulous and superstitious to believe there is something miraculous in such 
cases. The common sense of the public is not so easily duped, and hence 
society, ever since it was constituted, has demanded great knowledge in those 
to whom their lives are to be confided. Thus, from the earliest ages 
physicians have been expected to be the cultivators of the sciences, and to 
be able to employ all that is yielded by the earth, the waters and the atmos- 
phere for the preservation of health and the cure of disease. Hence has 



116 

it followed, that to the medical profession we owe the improvement of many 
of the arts and sciences most serviceable to mankind. Chemistry, Botany, 
Geology and Natural History, so fertile in supplying the wants and adminis- 
tering to the comforts of man, have received their greatest improvements 
from the cultivators of the healing art. Besides these considerations there 
is a well known fact, which appears to settle the question of the utility of 
the medical profession in public opinion. Whenever a new settlement has 
been formed in our country, as soon as the first wants are provided for, the 
inhabitants of the new village begin to look round for the aid of a physician, 
and do not consider themselves secure till they have drawn into their society 
some regularly educated practitioner, who they are particularly desirous 
should be conversant with the structure of the human hotly and with sur- 
gical operations. 

The necessity of the medical profession being admitted, the importance of 
anatomy must follow as a consequence. A knowledge of anatomy is the 
foundation of the healing art. It is a knowledge of the material, omwhich 
the physician is to operate ; and without knowing what he is to operate on, 
how can he possibly know how to operate ? There is a mode of practising 
medicine simply on experience without principles and without reason- 
ing. Such is the practice of our Indians and of savage nations in general, 
and it may sometimes be successful, but is quite as likely to kill as to cure. 
This is not the kind of practice, to which the inhabitants of civilized and en- 
lightened countries are disposed to give their confidence. Before they trust 
the lives of their families to professors of the medical art, they wish to be 
satisfied that they are well stored with general principles, suited to the end- 
less variety of forms in which disease presents itself, principally derived 
from a knowledge of the structure and functions of the human body, and of 
the modes in which this structure and these functions may be influenced by 
disease. Although there ,may sometimes be a successful practice of medi- 
cine in an empirical way, it is not so with operative surgery. The man who 
ventures under the sanction of a license, to plunge a cutting instrument into 
the living body, without knowing the precise organization which he is thus 
mutilating, is no better than a privileged assassin. When there are a thou- 
sand arteries and veins and nerves, the touch of which might be fatal ; to 
blindly and ignorantly sport with a deadly weapon, shews either want of 
principle or a species of insanity. Would a farmer set out to plant or to 
sow, without knowing the laws regulating the growth of the seeds he used, 
and the times and seasons necessary to their vegetation ? Would an arch- 
itect be employed to repair or to build a house, who had never seen the 
frame and the materials of which such a fabric is composed ? Would any 
one be so mad as to commit a concern involving the whole of his property 
to a lawyer, who knew nothing of law but what he had acquired from see- 
ing criminals go into court and out of it. 



117 



Yet such instances of credulity find their parallel in the minds of those 
who maintain that a surgeon can have skill without anatomy. Some may 
perhaps believe that books, and plates, and wax figures convey adequate 
notions of the human structure. This is an opinion natural enough, but 
entirely erroneous. The knowledge of a surgeon must be precise, we may 
say to the breadth of a hair, and a description or a fabrication to convey 
such knowledge must be the work of super-human powers. Could all the 
art which has existed since the foundation of the earth be combined, it 
could not produce the leaf of a plant ; much less could it construct the 
most wonderful of the works of nature, the fabric of man. It is probable 
that a single squai-e inch of the human body contains more parts distinctly 
organized, than could be represented by all the wax figures which ingenui- 
ty has ever contrived. 

Without further reasoning on the subject, let us appeal to facts, and per- 
haps you will expect me on this point, to speak from personal experience. 
When for the first time in this vicinity, I ventured to propose tying the 
wounded artery of a limb to save a man's life, it was thought impossible 
to do it with safety, and the individual was lost. On the next occurrence 
of a similar accident, I tied the wounded vessel without consulting the 
friends of the patient. His life was saved ; and since, I have done the 
same operation in a greater number of cases than I can recollect or ven- 
ture to state, and this with uniform success, save in one single instance, 
when the patient perished from the effects of bad habits. The Strangulat- 
ed Hernia is a disease, to which every man is liable at each moment of his 
life. Formerly such cases if not reducible by pressure, were allowed to 
proceed to mortification and death. It is stated in the " Address to the 
Community," that one physician judged, he had known of an hundred fatal 
cases of this disease, which could not be operated on for want of anatomi- 
cal knowledge. The number of such instances as have fallen to my lot 
with successful results, has been very considerable, and I have the satis- 
faction to know that many valuable persons have been preserved to so- 
ciety to this day, who would otherwise long since have terminated their 
earthly career. When we consider the numerous cases of other diseases 
and operations with similar results, and the successful operations perform- 
ed by other practitioners, and the still greater number of fatal diseases 
scattered through the country, which might have been saved by an ade- 
quate knowledge and practice in anatomical science, it must be admitted 
that this subject is one of public and National interest. 

The knowledge, which the voice of humanity so loudly calls for, is proscrib- 
ed by the laws of our Commonwealth. The student, who neglects to acquire 
a competent skill in his profession, is treated with neglect and exposure and 
prosecution, while he who takes the proper methods of qualifying himself is 
menaced with long confinement among* felons. Is there any thing in the 



118 

nature of anatomy, which calls for sueh severity ? Is it a crime to study the 
wonderful works of the Deity in this most perfect form ? Is it contrary to 
reason and nature to inspect the interior of a dead, decomposing body, with 
the intention of learning how to preserve the living frame from disease and 
mutilations and pain ? Is it better that the living poor should suffer pro- 
tracted tortures from the ignorance of those to whom they are committed, 
than that a few bodies rescued from the worms should be devoted to the 
noble purpose of instructing mankind and ameliorating the condition of pov- 
erty and distress ? Is it not practicable to reconcile the honorable prosecu- 
tion of the study of Anatomy with those deep and unchangeable associations, 
with which we regard the relics of our deceased friends ? That these ques- 
tions may be answered in the affirmative by the wisdom of an enlightened 
and benevolent Legislature, I most surely believe and most ardently pray. 
I have the honor to be very respectfully 
Your obedient servant 

JOHN C. WARREN. 



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